Life on the Edge
by civil
Summary: OC centric. From death through rebirth as a shinigami and everything that follows. Parallel to SS arc then diverges wildly.
1. Chapter 1

A suburb like any other. More grey than usual on this night, rain falling in sheets and blanketing everything in gloom. Most of the residents had retreated to the warmth of their homes, and only those obliged to be outside remained in the rain, heads bent in supplication to the might of the downpour, all hurrying to the next shelter and respite from the rain. Some just accepted they would be soaked to the skin by the time they got where they were going. Murasame Kyuzo was one of these resigned souls, and he was walking along the side of the large park in the centre of this suburb. He was wearing a long black leather coat to fend off the rain (and a pretty good job it was doing) and a hat pulled down over his ears and forehead to ward off at least some of the cold. Anyone who bothered to take a closer look would have seen the wire snaking out of the coat, and the earphones he was wearing. And were it not for the weather the music he was listening to would have been audible to anyone who passed within a few feet of him.

Even through the din of the rain and the harsh metal in his ears he heard the roar, and it stopped him dead in his tracks. After a few seconds he grunted to himself and moved on. "Another one of those bloody masked things. Probably on the other side of the park" he thought to himself. Trying to tune out the screeching the creature was making, he picked up his pace a bit, hoping against hope that one of those guys that wore black would show up soon and shut the thing up. "I've got work to do tomorrow and I don't want to listen to this shit all night" he said to nobody in particular.

He was still huffing when he got home. The creature was still kicking up a racket. Seeing as it was going to be a long night he took a leisurely shower, trying to force some warmth back into his body. He'd heard noise coming from the lounge on his way in, so he wandered back downstairs in some dry clothes. His flatmate was watching tv and working at the same time. "Hey Kyu" was his quick greeting, before his attention was back to the book in front of him. "'Sup Kaz, fancy one?" Kyuzo responded, indicating the cupboard where the whisky lived. "Yeah, sure. Had enough Chaotic Systems for one day" the second youth responded.

Second year university students both of them, Kyuzo in engineering and Nakamura Kazuki (Kaz to his friends, he would genially insist in most situations) in mathematics. Having only been a couple of rooms apart in the student accommodation provided for all first year students, their shared interest in a particular genre of western music had provided a basic common ground when they first met, and they had pretty much been friends ever since.

"So how was the gig?" Kaz queried his flatmate. "Awesome," answered Kyuzo, drinking deeply from the generous scotch he'd poured himself, "Nothing like being aurally assaulted for 3 hours to make an evening." He flexed his shoulders slightly. "I'm gonna be bruised tomorrow". Kaz smirked, "Crowded, eh?" The two continued chatting for a while, discussing the set list (Kyuzo had it perfectly memorised), how good the solos had been, and all the things metalheads talk about when describing concerts to each other.

"Well I've got a shitty test tomorrow, so I'm gonna go sleep." Kaz announced when the gig had been exhaustively analysed, rising and heading for the door. "Sure. Laters." He heard from the couch on his way out. Kyuzo got himself another drink and retreated to his own room. There was no point trying to sleep. He could still hear the thing in the park. He sat on his bed and stared out the window.

* * *

For as long as he could remember he'd been able to see the masked creatures, and the black clothed sword-wielding people who killed them and the petrified looking people who wandered round with the chains hanging out of their chests. But he'd soon learned that talking to people about it was stupid, and accepted that they were invisible to the majority of the populace. When the opportunity had risen to go to university in Karakura Town, he'd seized it, hoping to get away from all of it. While he was still a child he would only get woken up in the middle of the night, then go right back to sleep. But now he was used to not sleeping, and even on silent nights he would toss and turn until the early hours of the morning before finally slipping into a restless slumber.

And then came the dreams. Variations on a theme. He always awoke with the feeling of a second "presence" in the dreams. Memory always hazy; a man in a long white coat. Strange markings on his hands, stretching up his arms, but the full extent hidden by the coat. An apparition, exactly the same as the man, but bigger, and completely translucent. Like an outline around the upper half of his body. It always spoke to him, always, and it knew his name. And just when it seemed like it would become audible, Kyuzo would sit bolt upright in his bed, wide awake, with the words on the tip of his tongue but never quite coming out.

He had slowly soured. From childhood naïveté he had developed straight to apathy. Having spent so long forcing his body not to shudder when he heard the nails-on-a-blackboard screech, keeping his body from showing what was going on in his head was simple to him at 16, and at 22 it was like breathing. All his emotions had slowly been eroded by his hatred of this curse, as he considered it, seeing and hearing all these things. Whether they were monsters, ghosts, or something else he didn't know. But he hated them all. He kept it all under control though. Welded down tight in the back of his mind, never visible. Various martial arts clubs, angry music and alcohol, now that he was old enough, helped keep him from exploding. He wanted to know what it felt like, fighting one of those masked creatures, killing it. He'd seen the black clothed people kill them – they seemed to dissolve when the mask was broken. About pretty much everything else in the world, he didn't give a crap.

He finished his drink and picked up his guitar. He glanced at the clock by his bed; 00:30 it read. "No amp then, bit harsh on Kaz". Abruptly the noise from outside got a lot louder. "Finally. They're gonna kill the damn thing." And he was right. A few minutes later the only thing he could hear was the sound of the rain and what few cars were on the street at this time of night. So Kyuzo went to bed.

* * *

_It must be a dream. This guy is here again. Closer than ever. He's moving toward me. And getting closer. Usually just looks like he's walking on the spot. Mouth is moving. _

"_Kyuzo…"_

_More details. Looks like tattoos on his hands. Palm and back. But… they're moving… pulsing… swaying… like leaves in a breeze…and the aura. The face is wrong. Eyes different. Structure different. Too blurry…_

"_Kyuzo…Can you hear us?"_

_Both mouths move. Different voices. Same words. What the fuck…_

"_**CAN YOU HEAR US?"**_

_No need to be so loud. Of course I can hear you._

"_Say it out loud"_

"…_I can hear you. What the hell is this?"_

"_At last you have heard our cry."_

"_Why are you talking in plurals? What are you?" Great. I'm talking to a part man part apparition. And he's still coming towards me. _

"_We are Edge. We are yours to command. You have but to call on us."_

_He's got red eyes. He's holding something, I can't see it._

"_Call on you? Pffft, this is a dream. I'm going to forget most of this"_

_He's on me in a flash. Whatever he was carrying is gone. He's grabbed my hands. _

"_You will not forget about us. These will remind you"_

_It hurts. The pain…_

Like so many times before, he sat up in bed, eyes wide open and heart beating crazily. It was so vivid this time. And then the pain hit him. It was like his hands were on fire. Like acid eating his skin. He just barely bit back the scream that was rising in his throat, but a growl still managed to escape. He got his hands up in front of his face and through eyes blurred with tears he saw the marks on his hands, palm and back. Through the pain the thought crossed his mind; "They look like his hands" and the word escaped his lips "Edge…" before he blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

He awoke a few hours later. His alarm was ringing, and its tones were particularly piercing given the colossal headache he found himself suffering from. When he'd finally managed to grab hold of the offending timepiece and stop it from torturing him, he held it in up in front of him and tried to focus enough to see what the time was. About the same time as he concluded that it was half past nine and he didn't have any classes until 1 pm, he noticed the palm of his hand. The pain in his head pulsed and he recognised the marks on his hands. The same on both palms. A diamond at the centre and a barbed arm spiralling out from it. Something vaguely organic about the shape and the design, but it was all in black. And they still hurt. It felt like something hot was being drawn across his skin. Slowly. As his brain started to function properly through the headache and the dream came back to him, he recognised that the pain was significantly diminished from what it had been. And that it was no hangover he was suffering from. Nonetheless, a couple of painkillers and a lot of water were consumed before he got under the shower in a desperate attempt the wrest control of his faculties away from the throbbing at the base of his skull.

It worked, for the most part. There was still the pain in his hands, but that was bearable, and no amount of cold water seemed to alleviate the burning sensation. So he was feeling only slightly under the weather when he stalked out the flat, to try and get done some of the work he'd been planning to do that morning. He was deep in thought, not to mention virtually isolated from the world by the large pair of headphones he was using – since it had stopped raining he didn't limit himself to just buds. Mentally gnawing away at the particular engineering problem he was trying to solve for his project, he never noticed the group of people who were following him. It was only when 3 of the spread across the sidewalk in front of him and reached out to stop him that he even became aware of their presence. It took all of 2 seconds to size up his situation. Three in front, two behind, probably a knife or two on them. Small fry.

"You must be some tough guy. Blonde hair, long coat like that, and tattoos on your hands" drawled the one who had stopped him. Kyuzo didn't look, so much as feel the two behind inch closer. H knew they would be grinning at each other, but remained silent. "How bout you give us your money, and that fancy pair of headphones, and we'll let you go. Seems like a good deal to me." Kyuzo surmised this was the leader. Muggers. Idiots. Punks. He could feel the rage building inside him. And he'd been woefully underestimated. Two different martial arts clubs, four nights a week. He knew he was no slouch in a fight. He forced the anger back down inside him, looked the leader in the eye; "Walk away or crawl away. Your choice."

"Oooooh! He is a tough guy. Let's see what he's made of lads!" The leader seemed happy. "Leave your emotions outside a fight. Amateurs" Kyuzo though to himself. Quickly analysing where all his opponents were; One directly in front, smug leader, he'll throw the first punch. To the left of him, probably the strongest of them, and on the other side of the leader one who was all show, too fat to be a threat. Can have all three of them done before the two behind get their bearings. Sure enough the leader came first, with a clumsy punch. Kyuzo ducked it easily, threw a punch into his gut that doubled him over, and the followed up with another to the side of his head that sent him sprawling into the fat one. Turning to the mugger he'd deemed to be the biggest threat and dodging the punch he knew was coming, he grabbed the fist that sailed past his head, and put an elbow into the assailants face. The skin of the cheek split open on the seam of his jacket. A quick glance told him fatty wasn't coming near him, so he whirled on the two behind him. They were looking at each other nervously. They slowly circled round him to where their friends were either on the floor or looking at him warily. He turned and stalked away.

* * *

The morning encounter put him in a foul mood, and it showed when he met Kaz and a couple of other people for lunch. That they wouldn't shut up about the bandages he'd wrapped around his hands to cover the strange marks he'd woken up with only made him even more grumpy, and he eventually managed to change the subject. Some mindless banter later, he managed to extricate himself and headed to his afternoon classes. Fluid mechanics. His mind wandered all the way through. What was with the marks on his hands? What had the thing in his dream meant when it said 'call on us?' All these things wanted to bounce around in his head, but with much more effort than it should have been he pushed them aside, and managed to stop looking at his hands long enough to actually listen to the lecture, and even get some work finished off in the library afterwards. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts while he walked home that he didn't notice the five pairs of eyes watching him, nor the five pairs of footsteps that followed him to the end of his road.

He knew Kaz was out this evening, so he played some guitar and, thankful that there was no shrieking to contend with, decided to catch an early night; the pain in his hands had been sapping his energy all day. As he was sitting in bed, studying the marks on his hands the strange dream came to him again, and he murmured the word he'd been somewhat afraid to say all day; "Edge…"

He was immediately pitched into blackness, the sense of flying through space with no way of telling which direction almost made him throw up, but before it got that far he was halted violently, and found himself standing on the side of a mountain. It wasn't snow covered, or cold, but it was so very bleak. And exposed. It was all rock, and scrubby grass. Some heather and bracken the only vegetation of note. Further up the mountain the plantlife gave up completely and was replaced by broken rocky ground. And at the top of the peak, he could see a lone figure, buffeted by the wind. He knew exactly what it was, so he set off in that direction.

When he got there the lonely figure turned slowly to face him, but still said nothing. "What is this place?" he asked. "_This is your mindscape"_ came the eerie response. _"This is the very basis of your soul." _Kyuzo, seeing Edge while fully conscious for the first time, studied the being stood before him. His memory from his dreams was fairly accurate. A man in a white coat. Face set in hard lines, eyes a burning red and completely unreadable. And an aura around him. Another figure maybe 3 feet taller. A rippling white tinted mirage that moved in sync with its material partner. When the face was solid enough to be visible it was noticeably different too. Instead of the fixed scowl, it carried a faintly amused expression, like it was smiling to itself at some private joke.

"Mindscape… Right. Why do I have marks on my hands the same as yours, and why do yours extend up your arms? And what did you mean about calling on you?"

"_We had to put the marks on your hands so you could call on us. We are your power. To use us you must call us. The marks are the bond between us. You are not ready for them to be extended."_

"What power? Why… do I have you?"

"_You are a spiritually aware creature. All spiritually aware creatures have a zanpakutou, and I am yours."_

"Zan..paku…tou" Kyuzo said to himself, "slayer of souls, soulslayer, something like that?" This he directed at the spirit in front of him

"_Soulslayer. Most just use zanpakutou though. _

"Right…. And what exactly makes me a spiritually aware creature?"

"_When you call us for the first time in the real world, you will be able to differentiate between you anger and hate and that which gives you strength, your reiatsu, for the first time"_

"Reiatsu – that means, what, spirit pressure or something like that?" Kyuzo was more thinking out loud than actually asking.

"_Yes, but again reiatsu is the usual term."_

"Ok… so… what am I supposed to do with this… power?"

"_Whatever you like"_

"Right…"

And with that everything faded to black again.


	3. Chapter 3

Kyuzo was woken by his alarm sounding the next morning, the conversation with Edge still fresh in his mind. Calling on Edge was likely to be a very strange experience, and he had no idea what to expect, but for the first time in a long while, he was excited about something. Anxious to get on with it, he rose and dressed quickly, before realising he had no idea what to do to call his zanpakutou out, and indeed what it would look like. A voice in the back of his head, more of an echo came _"Call our name"_, the effect of two voices saying the same thing unmistakeable. So he looked at his hands in front of him. "Here goes nothing… Edge!"

The most noticeable effect, as far as he could tell straight away, was massive sensory overload. He felt like he was being assaulted with information. He was still in his room, but now he could 'feel' everything… it was like… touching everything in the room at once, studying it, breaking it down and revealing its very core. But it wasn't just his room he realised after a couple of seconds. It extended, through the rest of the house, outside, and some considerable distance away. The feeling of having all his horizons expanded so rapidly immediately caused him to feel nauseous. He fell to one knee, and it was only then that he noticed what he was holding. In his left hand he held a sword. But it wasn't like anything he'd ever seen before. Not like a sword out of a film or a video game. They were all fairly similar; hilt, guard, blade and scabbard. But the scabbard of the sword he held seemed to alternate, in a highly irregular pattern, almost crystalline, between being made of a metal of some kind and what looked a lot like carbon fibre. There was no guard to speak of, but there was a bulge about 8 inches from one end, an obvious break in the irregular patterning. Above the break, the patterning almost formed a pair of grips. Taking a deep breath, he held the scabbard next to the break in his left, and slowly took hold of the grip with his right. The blade was perfect; a very slight curve to it. As he drew it he saw the immaculate reflections in it, which promptly took away the deep breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. Fully drawn, he held the blade out in front of him; a metre of shimmering silver, with the inside of the curve as razor sharp as the cutting side. It felt like an extension of his body, his will, and that he knew exactly what to do with it.

* * *

Some distance away, a girl was squatting, with perfect balance, on the top of a telegraph pole. She was wearing a black kimono and hakama, with a white sash, and there was a sword tucked through the sash at her left hip. Her shoulder length black hair moving gently in the breeze, her dark blue eyes were focused on what appeared to be a mobile phone. Without warning she snapped the phone shut, stood up and spun round on the spot. "What is this reiatsu? There shouldn't be another shinigami here…" she said to herself. She was about to take off in the direction of the disturbance she had felt, when her phone started beeping. She flipped it open, almost sure she knew what it would say. There was a hollow headed directly for the source of the disturbance. Without a moment's hesitation, Kuchiki Rukia sped off in the direction of the reiatsu source.

The hollow in question had only just picked out the delicious scent when another it noticed another aroma – "two shinigami, what a treat!" it thought to itself as it bounded across rooftops. With a hollow and a shinigami moving at a high velocity towards him, Kyuzo soon felt the two with his newly expanded senses. But the massive amount of information that flooded into his brain as soon as he stopped concentrating on the sword in his hand soon overwhelmed him, and not knowing how to stem the massive tide, he simply passed out on his bedroom floor.

When he awoke, it was to the familiar screeching noise of the masked beings he had been seeing for so long. After noticing that his sword had vanished, and assuming it was because he had passed out, a thought popped into his head from nowhere, like something he'd always known. "They're called hollows. It's not far away." He wasn't sure if he said that out loud, or if it was all in his head. He struggled to his knees, and stumbled over to the window. The hollow was there. In the road. And it was fighting a girl, one of the ones in black. She had a sword, and seemed to be chipping away at the mask. As he watched the fight, he realised he was feeling it more than seeing it. Both of these spirit beings had a different feel. The hollow and the girl… they were polar opposites in how he sensed them, one a creature of pure fear, the other of redemption. Feeling this fight was draining him though. He could feel energy bleeding off him. Unconsciously he clamped down the flow, in much the same way he mentally forced his feelings aside. His understanding of the fight immediately lessened, but he felt a lot less like he was bleeding to death. Out in the street, the girl had deftly vaulted a tentacle aimed at her, and leapt towards the hollow, slicing the mask clean in half from its base. He watched he sheath her sword, "no, it's her zanpakutou", he corrected himself, as the hollow dissipated.

As soon as the hollow was purified, Rukia tried to locate the previous source of reiatsu; she could still feel it, but it was very weak compared to what it had been, and she couldn't pick it out from all the background noise. She thought briefly about sending a report to Soul Society, but decided against it; they didn't need to know about a spike in reiatsu. "But it was so big… On a level with a fukutaichou. Maybe I'll mention it to Ukitake-taichou when I return." Her mind made up, she flash-stepped away.

Watching from his window, Kyuzo was fairly sure it was him she had been looking for as the girl had looked around her for a couple of minutes. He unconsciously tightened his grip on what he assumed was his reiatsu. Even now he could feel his strength returning, and the strange energy swimming around him. But he was highly surprised when the girl literally vanished from sight. It made no sense. He cast his senses out to the area, holding them on a tight leash so it wouldn't take very much out of him. The area where she had been standing felt like liquid; like there was a thin membrane separating the ground from an ocean underneath. With college virtually forgotten, Kyuzo reeled his focus back into the room around him, and realised he got the same sense here; that there was something _through_ the ground, like a gap, or a void. As an experiment, he tried to channel some of the energy he could feel swirling through him through the wall and into that void. There was a definite ripple, and he watched as the wave travelled, slowly dissipating in this new medium. With a start he realised what the girl had done; A pulse of reiatsu into this medium and she had ridden the tidal wave it had caused like a surfer.

* * *

Kyuzo spent that whole day experimenting with his senses, and discovering that controlling reiatsu was really very similar to controlling his feelings and was actually not hard at all. But casting out the net of his senses was draining, and he slept a sound, yet surprisingly dreamless sleep. But one day was enough to take off from college. He emerged from his flat at the usual time the next day, with Kaz, and the two friends walked the familiar route to the university, before going their separate ways to their respective faculty buildings and the days work ahead.

He was walking home that evening, trying to sense whether Kaz was home yet, and his focus was not on what was going on around him. Five familiar and unfriendly faces were watching him, and following him. The one Kyuzo had considered the leader in their previous encounter had a long dagger sheathed under his coat, and was very happy to be seeing this particular mark again. The gang were slowly gaining on their target, and when they were close enough to spot the large headphones covering ears, they broke into a run. Kyuzo himself was totally unaware, since he was trying to work out from a mile or so away just what Kaz was watching on tv. He was jerked out of his concentration by a sudden ice-like pain in his back. He looked down to see something poking into the inside of his jacket. The Thug twisted the blade and pulled it out, as two of his accomplices grabbed the heavily bleeding youth under the arms and dragged him into an alley, before dropping him behind a dumpster. The lead thug was only a pace behind and wasted no time in plunging the blade into his victims' stomach to make sure. Kyuzo finally grasped what had happened when he saw the face of the people who were doing this. When the blade had first pierced his chest, his reiatsu control had faded completely, but now the fury hit. He'd been stabbed in the back, by a bunch of pathetic losers, and he was actually going to die. He couldn't feel his legs and the cold ruthless anger that coursed through him wasn't going to change that. But it did intensify the amount of reiatsu that was pouring off him. He was vaguely aware of other blows landing on his body, some bladed, some not, and hands going in and out of his pockets. His last thought as he lost consciousness was that he would get these guys. And then his reiatsu hit another high, before vanishing completely. Kuchiki Rukia was already on her way, having accurately worked out where she was going.


	4. Chapter 4

It was the mountainside again. Edge was standing over him when he opened his eyes.

"_You're dying. Your body will not last much longer."_

"Bastards. I had no chance."

"_You could have called us."_

"I was on the ground bleeding to death before I knew what was happening. Nothing like a bit of trauma to slow down your reactions"

"_Well now you have something you can use us for"_

"I would, but I'm a bit dead at the moment. How can I kill them if I'm dead?"

"_You will become a spirit being without a body, like the girl, and like the hollow."_

With a sickening lurch he was back in the alleyway. And he didn't feel like he was bleeding. At all. He stood up and looked at his chest. First up, his clothes were different. Very different. He spun round and looked down. There was a body slumped where he had been. Nausea washed over him, and he retched, hard, dry heaving an empty stomach until the feeling passed. He cut a glance back to where the body had been to make sure he wasn't imagining things. He wasn't. That was his blonde hair, with the red streaks. That was his jacket, his boots, his bag over the shoulders. He was unmistakably looking at his corpse. He retched again, and stood up, and noticed a familiar presence. It was the girl.

"Who are you?" he challenged her. She eyed him warily, noting with interest that there was no chain on his chest. It was definitely the same reiatsu as the previous day. And it looked like it had been a human that had possessed that reiatsu. She answered "I am Kuchiki Rukia. You are?" Taken aback by the abruptness of her response he replied on autopilot; "Murasame Kyuzo". She moved closer and examined him more closely. He wasn't quite wearing the clothes of a shinigami, but there were obvious similarities, and his reiatsu sure as hell felt like it belonged to a shinigami. He was wearing a strange black top that covered his torso, but left his right shoulder and arm completely uncovered. A dark red bracer covered his right forearm, reminding her of the hand-guards her adoptive brother wore, but this one ran most of the way to his elbow, and was a lot more substantial. There was a black leather shoulder guard on his left shoulder, and from underneath that, a very large sleeve covered his left arm, such that his left hand wasn't even visible. Instead of the usual hakama and sash, he had on a pair of western style trousers, big enough to be flapping in the breeze, and to cover his feet. It looked like a fighting outfit; with his feet covered there was a limit to what an opponent could deduce about his stance, likewise for his left arm, and the right arm was completely free from restrictions if he were to wield a sword. But he seemed not to have one. Still, she had to know.

"Are you a shinigami?" she asked. He looked confused; "Shinigami? As in grim reaper? Death god? Something like that?" She clarified; "Death God, but usually it's just shinigami." Which didn't seem to help him much; "I have no idea. What makes you think that?" Rukia truly didn't know how to proceed; here was a soul that had just died, had tremendous reiatsu, and no chain of fate. She wasn't even sure konso would work on him. "Your reiatsu. It feels like a shinigami." At this he realised it was leaking off him, and a second later he realised he wasn't feeling tired from it either. He still clamped down and controlled it. Much to his surprise the Kuchiki girl started violently; "How can you have so much control over your reiatsu? You just died!" He shrugged. "I need you to come with me", she said when she regained her composure. "Where? Why?" he asked. This was beginning to annoy him. There were five bastards who needed to die very slowly, and they were getting away. "You must go to Soul Society, the home of all souls. It is my job to send you there." She started to draw her zanpakutou, intending to use a konso on him. "Oi! What do you need your sword for?" He was backing away now, "and what is this Soul Society place?" She leapt at him before he could continue, and smacked him in the forehead with the base of the hilt if her sword… and nothing happened. But it had hurt.

"What the hell was that for?" he enquired icily, rubbing his forehead. "That should have sent you to Soul Society…" Rukia answered. "Well I've had enough of your crap. There are five pieces of shit that I have to repay in kind for murdering me, and I have to find them first. So if you'll excuse me." He turned and stalked off. She flash stepped in front of him and bought her sword into a ready stance. Her tone dropped; "I cannot allow you to harm living humans. It is one of my duties to protect humans, and you will also turn into a hollow. I will stop you here if I have to." Unfortunately for Rukia she was not aware that Kyuzo was actually very smart, and had worked out the basis for flash steps having seen her do it once. And he'd just seen her make one of the strange jumps in front of him. He was sure he was right, that he could do it. He blasted the reiatsu through his feet, and the world seemed to recede in slow motion, everything fading to black pencil lines on white, all detail washed out leaving only outlines. He landed on the roof of a building a couple of blocks away, falling out of what he termed the "flash space" with a jolt, unaware of how close his chosen name for it was to the name the shinigami used. Making sure his reiatsu was completely masked, he smirked, and made for street level. There was revenge to be had.

* * *

The communications centre of the Gotei 13, located in the 12th Division headquarters, was the nerve centre of operations in the real world. Hollows were tracked, reports received and orders dispatched. It was all managed from this room. One of the shinigami staffing the room saw the critical flag on a newly arrived message, and brought it up on his screen;

_From: _Kuchiki Rukia, 13th Division.

_Station: _Karakura Town

"Have encountered soul of recently deceased human, neither plus, nor shinigami. No chain of fate and not a hollow. High levels of shinigami-like reiatsu, approximately equivalent to a fukutaichouclass shinigami. Subject demonstrated excellent reiatsu control, and ability to use flash steps. Konso ineffective. Subject indicated desire to harm humans and evaded capture. Awaiting further instructions."

The operator blinked at his screen. This one had to go up the line, so he summoned a messenger and dispatched it to all the taichous. As the hell butterflies sought out their targets across the Court of Pure Souls, Kyuzo had found the first of his targets. He was following him from the rooftops, hoping this one would lead him to the other four, only to be disappointed when he returned to a battered apartment block. He sighed and jumped up to the roof. He had all the time in the world, and now he could decide just how the five of them would die. Unaware of the murderous intent on the roof of the building, the thug slept soundly.

* * *

About the same time as Kyuzo was debating the relative merits of castrating the goons and force feeding their own balls compared to slowly skinning them, the 13 taichous were arriving at the meeting room in the 1st Division headquarters.

"I trust you all know what this is about. The report from the real world" The old man who stood on the dais rumbled to start the meeting, "Opinions?"

Immediately the taichou of the 12th division spoke; "This wouldn't be a problem if the shinigami who sent the report wasn't so incompetent. She should have purified the soul straight away, instead of letting it slip through her fingers." The barb was expected by everyone, and was aimed not just at the girls' superior, the white haired taichou of the 13th Division, but also he adoptive brother and taichou of the 6th Division. Kuchiki Byakuya remained as impassive as ever, Kurotsuchi's insult flying past him as if it had never been uttered. Ukitake narrowed his eyes slightly. Before he could answer the vulgar 12th division taichou, Tousen spoke; "It needs to be apprehended before blood is spilt." Komamura quickly agreed; "If there is intent to harm humans, it must be caught and brought back here." The two rarely disagreed, so this was no surprise to those present. Sui Fong spoke next; "If he is of fukutaichouclass strength then one of us needs to apprehend him. This should be left to my division." The room erupted into argument at this; Kenpachi wanted to go so he could see how strong the soul was, Kurotsuchi wanted him for a 'research subject', Ukitake and Kyouraku suggested a gentler approach, Ichimaru suggested simply purifying the soul, to which Aizen agreed, Hitsugaya put forth the idea that the soul would make an ideal candidate for the shinigami academy, and so the argument went on until the wizened soutaichou struck the ground with his cane. All the verbal infighting stopped abruptly. "We shall leave this matter to the Secret Mobile Corps. This is their jurisdiction." He struck the floor with his cane again, and the meeting was over.


	5. Chapter 5

From his rooftop vantage, Kyuzo had followed the thug for most of the morning, and finally found what he was looking for. All five of them lounging in an alley, talking about their recent conquest. He smiled grimly to himself, and jumped down into the alley. They still couldn't see him. Putting his left arm out to his side, he said one word; "Edge", and the sword slowly formed in his hand, and the amount of reiatsu he found at his disposal increased significantly. Not bothering to mask the excess, he started to draw the blade.

"What are you doing?" The voice came from behind him. It was the Kuchiki girl. She must have felt him spike. "These are the five people who killed me. I'm merely returning the favour." Rukia knew that a party from the 2nd Division had been dispatched to apprehend this soul, and would be here shortly. She also knew that they would be using _her_ location as their entry point to the real world, and she was thankful for this, because in front of this man she was unsure of herself, for the first time since…. She pushed the thoughts of her recently deceased fukutaichou aside.

Snapping out of her momentary reverie she looked at the sword Kyuzo held. It was without doubt a zanpakutou. She drew her own; "I cannot let you harm these men." He cocked his head; "Why? It's not like you know them, or they are worthy of being protected."

"If they killed you, they will go to hell when they die. Not to Soul Society where all other souls go. If you kill them you will never be allowed to enter Soul Society, and you will most likely turn into a hollow, a creature of fear." The light erupted behind her, and the pair of doors appeared. Kyuzo watched as six men and another woman stepped through. The six men all had their faces covered, and only their eyes visible, and immediately jumped to surround him. The new woman turned to Rukia; "Kuchiki Rukia. The Secret Mobile Corps will take it from here" and turned to look at the soul she had been sent to get. Behind her Rukia bowed, her mind whirling "A taichou? Is he really that much of a threat?"

Kyuzo was getting angry. Why were these people bothering him? His right hand was hovering a scant few inches from the hilt of his sword. He didn't know why he had adopted that stance, but instinct told him it was the right one. The woman was approaching - she had on a white haori over the black uniform that seemed to be standard among these people, and a sword, presumably a zanpakutou, across the small of her back. "I am Sui Fong, taichou of the 2nd Division of the Gotei 13. You will accompany us back to Soul Society, willingly or not." There was no hesitance or doubt in her voice he noted. He relaxed his tense posture slightly, but still watched the six silent men warily. From the reiatsu rolling off her, this woman was strong. Her slate grey eyes confirmed she wasn't bluffing. He let go of his sword, and it dissolved into nothing. "You made the right choice" said Sui Fong, and she was about to turn away and re-open the gate when he flash stepped away. She kept track of him easily and instantly gave chase, getting close enough when he was in the middle of a park to land a kick and send him to the ground.

Kyuzo spat the dirt out of his mouth and rose to his feet, temper just barely held in check. What was it with these people? Why did they care so much about what he did, whether he killed five worthless sacks of shit? Letting more of his reiatsu loose, he glared at the taichou who was once again stood before him. Sui Fong felt the increase, but knew he was still holding back, it was too controlled. Instead of the spikes and wild fluctuations of a novice or someone going all out, this was flat and constant. And it was strong. "Where did you learn flash steps?" she quizzed him. In response he launched himself at her, wanting nothing more than to pummel this woman and then find his targets. At first she simply dodged his attacks, but when she misread a feint and took a kick to the side of the ribs she started fighting back with venom. Her speed and skill being superior, she landed several blows before he realised he'd never had the upper hand. Using a quick flash step, she jumped behind him and swept his legs out from under him. Another flash and she was over him, blade drawn and held at his neck.

"Surrender. You cannot win this fight, and you don't need to." The view wasn't good from the floor. A sword poised a scant few millimetres from his neck and no doubt the wielder would use it, Kyuzo didn't feel like getting killed for the second time in as many days. In spite of the fury still boiling inside of him, reason kicked in and after directing one last burst of reiatsu at his opponent, he muttered "Fine." He expected her to remove the sword at this, but it remained firmly in place, its threat not diminished at all. "How are you able to use flash steps? That is a high level shinigami technique. Tell me why." A short distance away stood the six SMC ninjas and the lone shinigami from the 13th Division. Kyuzo glanced over at them and then answered the question; "I saw her do it a couple times." He gained some small sense of satisfaction Sui Fongs' eyes widened in surprise. It was brief, and she got it under control again quickly, but it was unmistakeable. She continued; "You have a lot of potential. Join the academy in Soul Society." It didn't seem like a suggestion. "Do I have a choice?" he replied. "You can be imprisoned." Not much of an alternative. "Can I stand up now?" Sui Fong sheathed her blade, but didn't let her vigilance slip. She still wasn't sure if he would try to run again. "So what happens now?" he said as the seven spectators approached. Sui Fong nodded to one of the men and he moved a short distance away and started doing something Kyuzo couldn't see. A couple of seconds later the pair of doors appeared in a flash of white light and the group stepped through.

* * *

When they emerged into a bright sunlit courtyard on the other side, the six men vanished almost instantly. Kyuzo felt the ripples in the wake of the flash steps. Behind him he heard Sui Fong tell Rukia to report to her taichou, and then her footsteps approaching him; "Come with me" she instructed curtly. Given the sudden change of location and all round unfamiliarity of his surroundings, Kyuzo decided that absorbing as much information as possible, while causing as little disruption as possible; soak up the local colour, blend in. So he followed, trying to keep his bearings but finding it difficult in the maze of streets, all unnamed and all identical. He noticed that all of the other residents made way for Sui Fong to pass. They were clothed exactly the same as Kuchiki Rukia. And he was getting a lot of looks. An unrecognised face, in unfamiliar clothing being led around by someone who was obviously very well known, or at least recognised. "So much for blending in" he mused.

"Name?" It was the dark haired woman talking to him, which he hadn't expected. Everything about her gave the impression she didn't want to be near him, or interact with him at all. He was following because she had told him too, and he imagined the journey would be completely silent, and he was just fine with it being that way. Now he had to talk. Bare minimum of information; given name only. "Kyuzo" he answered. "No family name?" she responded. "Doesn't really matter now does it?" She made a noncommittal noise. "I am taking you to the Shinigami Academy. You will train and learn our ways there. Be sure to respect the rules. There are those who didn't want you brought here with your identity intact." Her strange choice of words intrigued the young man. Identity intact? What is that supposed to mean? He stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. She just turned and looked at him, for the first time since they had left the courtyard where they'd arrived. He returned her gaze levelly, not knowing what else to do. "We're here" she finally said, indicating the large wall they were walking along.

The pair approached the gate, and were waved in by the two guards, Kyuzo assumed because of his companions rank. Inside the wall, it seemed was a very big compound. There were several buildings, all well spaced apart, and the grounds were huge. All the people here were dressed in white training outfits, with a number sewn onto the sleeve. There were a few people dressed like all the shinigami outside, who must be the teachers he reasoned. He followed Sui Fong towards a squat grey building, the smallest in sight, and ended up going into an office that had admissions written on the door. A desk in the middle of the room, and stacks of paper on most other surfaces. It looked like a bomb had gone off it was so messy. The man behind the desk shot to his feet as they entered. "Sui Fong-taichou. I wasn't aware you would be inspecting today. With the new intake I have been very busy. I apologise for the mess…" He trailed off as he spotted the youth behind the SMC commander. For her part, Sui Fong completely ignored what the man, who was actually the admissions director, had said. "Test him. All four disciplines. Then admit him where you see fit." She inclined her head as she spoke, indicating that she was talking about the youth.

"All disciplines? Are you sure about that taichou?" The director was cut off by a look from Sui Fong that could have cut steel. He bowed and left the room, returning a couple of minutes later with another man in tow. He spoke to Kyuzo; "Go with Murata-sensei. Do as he says." Kyuzo looked from the director to the man called Murata and then to Sui Fong. She nodded almost imperceptibly. "This way" the teacher said, and led him out of the room. When the office door was closed, Sui Fong turned to the director; "Keep me apprised of his progress." Before he could answer, she had spun on her heel and stalked out.


	6. Chapter 6

Murata looked at the young man sat in front of him. They were in one of the training dojos that wasn't in use on that particular day. He had point blank refused to give any name other than Kyuzo, arguing his family name was irrelevant now. Start with the basics.

"Why do you want to become a shinigami?"

"I don't. I was just brought here."

"Just brought here?"

Bare minimum information; "Yes" Kyuzo answered. Murata let it go.

"Do you know what a shinigami does?"

"Not really"

"Do you know about Soul Society?"

"No. I was alive 2 days ago"

This piqued the instructors' interest. Recently dead, brought to the academy by a taichou. "I've been instructed to test you in the four disciplines of a shinigami. Hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, flash steps and kido. Do you know what all of them are?"

"What's kido?"

"That is our magic system; focussing reiatsu into offensive and restrictive spells"

"Never heard of it, doesn't sound too difficult."

The instructor was even more interested now. The youth seemed to have barely any reiatsu and didn't know what kido was, yet he was supposed to test him in flash steps. Why was a taichou so interested in him? "Well let's get started then. First I would like to focus on your reiatsu levels, so I can determine the form the rest of the test should take. Increase the amount of reiatsu you are putting out as much as you can"

Kyuzo was unsure of how to proceed. He could release his control, but he knew there would be a subconscious limit on it. Would the teacher be able to tell? He shrugged inwardly, and stood up. Murata was watching intently as he started pushing aside the control. Kyuzo felt the strange energy flowing around him, and his senses grew outwards, like a gossamer fine net they settled on everything in the immediate area and relayed everything to his brain as accurately as if he was running his hand over every square inch of the room. He pushed aside the torrent of information, keeping only what was relevant, which was the instructor in front of him. In a few other dojos, and in some of the classrooms and lecture theatres and on the practice grounds and in the dormitories, heads turned towards the source of this unfamiliar reiatsu. Those students who were skilled enough to sense reiatsu wondered which teacher was demonstrating what. Every one of the instructors felt the disturbance, and didn't recognise it. In the dojo, Murata looked at the youth. He was impressed. This level of reiatsu was significant; easily enough to be a seated officer in the Gotei 13, and it was still under control. He'd been dead for two days and was this skilled at reiatsu control…

* * *

As she strode out the gates to the Shinigami Academy, intending to go to her Division headquarters and write a report on the entire episode for the soutaichou, she heard a familiar voice greeting her; "Good Morning, Sui Fong-taichou." She turned to the speaker. He was resting against the wall by the gate. She nodded a greeting; "Ukitake-taichou," and continued walking. He walked alongside her. The white haired man spoke again; "You fought him?" He caught the glance that Sui Fong had cut him and shrugged. "Kuchiki told me." She had tensed up, but upon hearing his explanation relaxed slightly. "We fought, yes. He seemed to have a zanpakutou when I arrived, but didn't use it at all, though it did look like he was capable. He still fought well." Ukitake considered this. "How high will he get?" She answered without hesitation "Seated. Not disciplined enough to be any higher." There was no doubt in her voice. "I see." The conversation seemed to be drawing to a close when they both felt the reiatsu spike coming from the academy. "Is that him?" Ukitake asked as they both stopped and looked back towards the walls. "Yes." Even from a distance Ukitake was impressed. He stood and felt the reiatsu wash over him for a few minutes, not noticing Sui Fong leave. "Interesting," he murmured to himself, "only a seated officer eh?"

* * *

"You can stop now" Murata said, and as he had expected, the flow of reiatsu immediately dropped to the mere trickle it had been before. "Do you know how to fight?" The guarded response came, "I can hold my own". The instructor rose to his feet and took up a guard; "So show me." Ordinarily Kyuzo preferred to examine his opponents' technique before attacking, then finding an opening and landing a blow inn some important location. It seemed like the point of this exercise was to determine his own offensive capabilities. Bearing this in mind he took up a position opposite the man called Murata, considered his options, and launched into an attack. A couple of punches, both swept aside, a kick aimed to the side of the ribs, forcibly driven back by a two-handed block, a leg sweep, deftly jumped. And they were facing off again. Kyuzo attacked again, feinting to his left and aiming a blow to the chest as he came back, and following with another aimed at the abdomen. Neither connected as his opponent backed off, but there was the opening he needed; the slight drop in the guard as he retreated. This man was nowhere near as good as the taichou he had fought in the real world. He lunged towards the instructor, checking his speed at the last moment, a couple of high kicks, ducked as expected, and elbow, blocked as it was supposed to be, and then he ducked to his right, launching an uppercut he never expected, nor wanted to land. And there was the opening again. He didn't miss it this time and shot the heel of his palm into the instructors' solar plexus, which sent him back a few paces.

"Good. You didn't miss the opening." The tone of the instructors' voice made it clear that this part of the test was over. "Since you've never done any kido or had any teaching, any testing would be pointless. You seem to know what flash steps are, can you use them?" Kyuzo knew what the teacher meant; the speed moving technique. Since seeing Sui Fong use them in their fight in the real world he had a better idea of how to do them. He still thought they were wasteful, and that there was a much more efficient way of moving through the flash space, but that would have to wait. For now he simply jumped to the other side of the training room, behind the teacher. Murata merely blinked as he felt the rush of air of a flash step past him. "There are 6th years who can't step that well…." He thought to himself. "Well it's clear you know how to use flash steps, and that just leaves swordsmanship. You know about shinigami and zanpakutou?" The youth walked back to the middle of the room and replied "A bit."

"Names? Release states? What?"

"I know every shinigami has a zanpakutou, and that zanpakutou have names. I've never heard the term 'release states' before."

"Okay. Every shinigami does have a zanpakutou, and it is part of their soul. Each one is unique, both in appearance and in abilities. A zanpakutou is usually carried in its sealed form, like mine is now" At this the instructor hefted his own sword, a regular looking katana with an oval hilt guard. "But to properly use the powers and abilities, it has to be released. This release is called shikai, and is generally triggered by a short phrase as well as the name of the zanpakutou. With me so far?" Kyuzo nodded, thinking hard about this shikai concept.

"There is a second release, which only the most powerful of shinigami obtain, which is obtained by completely subjugating the spirit of the zanpakutou. Most students obtain shikai by the time they leave the academy, but bankai is far beyond the reach of most of them; it takes years of training to first materialize the spirit of the weapon, and many more years to master it. Of course the power a bankai grants its wielder is great, about ten times more than the shikai. So swordsmanship is taught in two ways at the academy; first there are lessons on using the powers of a zanpakutou and obtaining shikai, and secondly there is classic swordsmanship. Clear?"

Kyuzo nodded again. "As a general rule, most students obtain their zanpakutou after a couple of years, and spend the remainder of the time trying to learn the name, and the shikai that comes with this. Have you ever fought with a sword?"

"No, but I know how to."

"You had lessons when you were alive?"

Kyuzo shook his head. "I just know…." It wasn't very convincing, but ever since he had first drawn the blade in his room, he'd know how to use it; the knowledge had flown into his consciousness and reared its head like instinct whenever it was required. He had felt it when the shinigami had come to collect him from the real world. Despite never using the sword, his body had naturally moved into the right posture. Thinking back to it now, the attack he would have used materialized in his head; holding the scabbard at his left side where it would sit were it through his belt, left hand just below the hilt, attacking an enemy on his right first. In his minds eye he visualised the attack; drawing the blade in a wide, powerful slash, and following through with the scabbard in his left hand. The pros and cons of the attack scrolled through him unbidden; fast, powerful, opening the slash leaves covered by the scabbard follow through. He blinked out of the thought. The teacher was speaking again.

"Alright then, pick a sword from the racks on the wall and spar with me."

Kyuzo saw the racks the teacher was indicating, and involuntarily shuddered at the thought of using a sword not his own. "Can't I just use my zanpakutou?" he asked.

"If you have a zanpakutou, then where is it?" the teacher questioned laconically, raising one eyebrow at the same time. He watched as the student (for he was sure the boy would be admitted to the academy) put out his left hand. When it was stretched right out to his side, at shoulder height, fingers just about poking out the end of the baggy sleeve that covered the arm, Kyuzo snapped his fingers and murmured something that the teacher didn't here. Murata saw what was happening; the first part to appear was directly in the hand, but before long the handle had extended forward, and the body of the blade and scabbard had grown out. He was curious about the strange crystalline design on the scabbard; it wasn't like any zanpakutou he had ever seen, as they all had scabbard which resembled wood; it looked like the boy was holding a sword in a reverse grip in his left hand, the slight curve indicating the blade was pointed outwards.

Drawing his own blade, the teacher walked to the center of the room and took up a standard ready stance, both hands on the hilt and blade out in front of him. "So show me what you can do." Kyuzo had been expecting the increase in his reiatsu to come when he summoned Edge, and was ready for it. Again the instructor wanted him to do the attacking, and it seemed the opening in their fist fight was deliberate. But he was a lot more confident in his ability to fight with the blade. Even when it was sheathed, he could feel the desire to fight emanating from it. The markings on his hands burned with the desire to fight, but he didn't feel the pain. He turned sideways on to the instructor, and brought the weapon to his side. He knew what he was going to do. He knew how to do it, and he could guess what the result would be. Coiling slightly within himself, he closed the distance to the opponent quickly. At the right distance he nudged the blade loose from the scabbard with his left thumb, his legs stopped moving, all the momentum from his movement transferred to the blade as it left the scabbard. For added measure he put some reiatsu into the strike as well. The two blades met as the instructor tried to block the attack, but it was too much even for him. His block swept aside, he saw the scabbard coming towards him and involuntarily flinched slightly as it stopped millimetres from his temple. It was a blow that would have at least dazed him, if not rendered him unconscious had it landed.

He took a few steps back, and watched Kyuzo ease out of a fighting stance, his sword lowered to his side. To say that was impressed was an understatement. That attack had completely defeated him, and in a real fight he had no doubt that he would lose. "That is a very unorthodox fighting style." Kyuzo shrugged; "It's all I know." Murata wanted to question further, but knew he should bring the testing to an end.


	7. Chapter 7

Things had moved pretty fast from there. Kyuzo was lounging on the bed in the room he had been allocated in the male dorm building. It wasn't a bad room, and he didn't have to share, for that he was thankful. After the testing he'd had to sit outside the admission directors' office and resisted the temptation to listen in on their conversation. When they emerged, the director had welcomed him to the academy, and summoned a lackey to take him to the stores and then the dorms. He wasn't happy with the student uniform; he'd gotten used to what he was wearing and understood its benefits in a fight. After some haggling he'd gotten something close to the shape he wanted, but he'd had to rip the sleeves off to get comfortable. He was sure they wouldn't be happy about the dark red bracers he wore, but he wasn't about to show off the marks on his hands before he fully understood them. By the time a room had been found for him, the director of classes, a woman he was told to call Akami-sensei had caught up to them and told him to explain how the teaching worked. As he understood it there were 7 classes in each of the four disciplines, and you had to get through all seven in at least three of the four to graduate. A sheaf of papers was thrust into his hands, and the woman was gone, and she called back over her shoulder "Read up before tomorrow."

Amongst the glut of information he found his class allocations. He was unsurprised to be in Kido 1, but the others were pretty extreme; Zanjutsu 7 (that was swordsmanship apparently), Hakudo 6, and Shunpo 6. He surmised that Hakudo was hand to hand fighting and Shunpo was flash steps. Plenty of questions were left unanswered and these he pondered while staring at the ceiling. "What happens when I complete the other three and I'm still on Kido 3? Can I skip? Do I really care about this anyway?" He'd been pretty passive since he'd arrived, and having read through the material he'd been given on the history of Soul Society, the structure of the Gotei 13 and the purpose of the shinigami, that last thought was occupying him the most. "Is it really worth it, to be a glorified policeman? All this structure and bureaucracy?" Thinking back to the testing, the excitement he'd felt facing off against the instructor. Unbidden, the familiar two-tone voice sounded in the back of his mind _"You want to fight. We want to fight. Stay."_ He recognised that what the zanpakutou had said was true. He _did_ want to fight. About the same time his stomach started rumbling a gong sounded over the grounds. Flicking through the papers he'd been given, he saw that was the signal that the mess hall was open, so he went to find some food.

* * *

A couple of months later and the shinigami academy was starting to really get on his nerves. He'd been jumped to Kido 2 after a week, Kido 3 a month later and was now in Kido 4. Turned out it really wasn't that hard; pushing aside all thoughts and concentrating only on the words of the incantations, projecting the images in his minds eye, the reiatsu formed around him, following the flow of the spell, and was finally released. It just required more concentration at the higher levels. So Kido was fine. Everything else wasn't. He was well used to being an outsider in school when he was alive, and here it was no different. He was widely resented for being injected so high up the pecking order, his appearance earning no end of mockery, and he couldn't quite let go the feeling of _waste_. He had been to the lessons, knew how to talk to his zanpakutou, and hadn't even had to ask it about shikai, the words jumped into his mind, and he immediately knew they were right. But still he hadn't demonstrated it to anyone because he knew it would only fuel more jealousy and spite; he could already beat all the others in his class in a sparring match, including those who had used their shikai against him. He didn't care about the hand-to-hand combat because he felt much more comfortable using his zanpakutou. He'd taken to keeping it materialised now, and had fashioned a sling of sorts so he could carry it blade downwards as he preferred, which annoyed his classmates even more. As if all of that wasn't bad enough, several avenues of relaxation were now close off to him; he couldn't go drinking because it was forbidden for students, and he also couldn't stand sake. He couldn't listen to any music – he had none and no means of playing it, and his guitar was still in the living world, no doubt sold or binned. At least he could still fight to relieve stress.

And then there were the flash-step lessons. He found them infuriating because the technique itself was so bad; it was like setting off a bomb behind a ship and using the waves it made to get from A to B. He'd been shouted down when he probed about it. He had a couple of ideas he wanted to play with, but nowhere to do it, and nobody to talk to about it. Despite his advancement in the kido classes, he just wanted a book and a practice room. The lessons were slow paced and he knew he could do better. Things came to a head on the exhibition day.

* * *

This was the day of competition where representatives from the Gotei 13 were present to watch. It was usually just a couple of seated officers sent to scout out the next sessions graduates. As a student in Zanjutsu 7, he had been entered into the freefighting competition automatically; no technique off limits. But the stir came when the news trickled into the preparation area that there were 2 taichous present. He had felt the strong presences from the arena earlier, and recognised one of them as the woman called Sui Fong. The other he didn't know. The presence of two of the most powerful warriors in all of Soul Society only drove up the tension in the soon-to-be combatants. Kyuzo was back in his own clothes, since student uniforms weren't required for this event. He was sat under a tree examining the spectators with his cast out senses, trying to pass the time until he was called; all of the teaching staff, and a large contingent of shinigami, not so close together that their reiatsu signatures were indistinguishable.

"Kyuzo-kun" The mocking voice interrupted his train of thought, and he was brought back to his immediate surroundings. In front of him stood one of his Zan-7 (the student slang for the class) classmates, a particularly annoying brawler by the name of Kaneda Atsura. "Seems like some taichous have come to scout out the talent. Guess they'll be giving you a miss since you haven't even hit shikai. Who knows, if you work hard maybe you can reach it by the time we meet in the arena?" He was being baited, Kyuzo knew. Atsura was in the 7th class across the board, and boasted to any and all who would listen that he was the strongest student in the academy. The only problem was that he'd never beaten Kyuzo in a sparring match. The wooden sworded training exercises where the first hit won, and the no-hold-barred fights that were closely supervised, with healing specialists on hand, always had a clear winner. In their last bout Kyuzo had beaten him without even _drawing_ his sword, just blocking and defending with his sheath, before hitting a winding blow to Atsuras' stomach when the opportunity presented itself, as he had know it would. So Atsura had picked out the lack of shikai, and announced to all present that he was still more powerful. Ever since he had been wheedling Kyuzo for an unsupervised rematch, only to be calmly rejected every time. But now he had his opportunity, in front of two Gotei 13 taichous as well.

Kyuzo ignored a few more insults that were thrown his way, until the announcer called "Next combatants. Kaneda Atsura and Kyuzo, report to the arena!" With Atsura still firing verbal barbs at him, Kyuzo rose and walked past him, never a flicker of emotion on his face. Inside he was raging. This fool had eroded all of his patience, and he wanted nothing more than to kick the crap out of him, see him absolutely, totally defeated and humiliated in as public a fashion as possible. And here he was begging for a fight. The arena itself was a fairly large square, with seating around 3 sides. The surface was a bit torn up already from the previous fights. A few moments later the two were squaring off, some twenty feet apart in the center of the fighting ground. Kyuzo had dematerialized his zanpakutou before entering, and as such appeared unarmed. Atsura drew his own zanpakutou and leered at him. "Tough guy eh? Leave your ugly sword in the dorms or something?" The choice of phrasing couldn't have been more perfect, reminding Kyuzo of the thug who had murdered him in the living world.

"Begin!" It was the announcer. Kyuzo was barely listening. The fury was uncoiled in his chest, like an angry snake. Atsura was charging towards him, then leapt into the air aiming to deliver a vicious downwards strike. Kyuzo stretched out his left arm, and snapped his fingers. Immediately Edge appeared in his hand, ready to block the strike. They met, blade against scabbard, and Atsura pushed his reiatsu into the deadlock, hoping to overpower him. Kyuzo pushed back by unleashing the full force of his anger, all his self-control forgotten. He swung his sword and Atsura was pushed back as far as his starting point. A fair few heads in the audience were looking with concern at the blond haired youth; that had been a serious amount of reiatsu for an exhibition match. For his part, Atsura got straight back on the horse. He got to his feet, and released his zanpakutou, before throwing a quick glance at the spectator stands. He saw the two figures with white robes over the black. And continued the fight.

A couple of fireballs, Way of Destruction No. 31, flew towards Kyuzo who was still standing in exactly the same place. He flash stepped out of the way, and then blurred out of existence again, closing half the gap to his opponent before coming out of the flash space at a sprint. He was attacking from the side, and Atsura barely got his blade across his body to block the wicked slash that came as the blade left its sheath. Kyuzo saw him stagger slightly, felt a brief stab of satisfaction, and hit him in the side of the ribs with his sheath, before leaping back and once again sheathing his sword in preparation for another one of his sword drawing attacks. Atsura took his time getting up from his position on one knee. As he rose, he pointed a finger at Kyuzo and uttered the words "Way of binding, No. 32. Red Creeper!" Immediately the red cords shot out of the ground around Kyuzo, and grappled him. Wrists, ankles, knees, shoulders, waist, all held. Atsura was charging again. Cold fury coursed through Kyuzo as his opponent approached. His reiatsu spiked massively, and the red bonds disintegrated, powered as they were by Atsuras will. Kyuzo got his sword up to defend just in time, and had to give significant ground to avoid the blows from thick curved blade of his opponents released zanpakutou. Eventually the two separated, no blows landed.

"Still lacking that shikai boy. Now I'm gonna make you regret that!" taunted Atsura. And something snapped in Kyuzo. "Why should I hide it anymore?" He put out his left arm in front of him, zanpakutou still held in the familiar reverse grip. Even as he started speaking the words, his reiatsu was increasing enough to stop Atsura in his tracks; "Sever every last bond, Edge!" Before he was finished the metallic parts on the scabbard had started to writhe, expanding and coalescing into a solid mass, which eventually formed itself into another blade on the outside of the sheath. If he hadn't been staring so intently at Atsura, Kyuzo would have noticed the small black slightly translucent tendrils that slid out of the marks on his hands, and straight through the bracers he wore. Only a couple of inches long, they looked like the leaves of some underwater plant swaying in the currents. Everyone else was too far away to see them. Pure hate flowing through his veins, Kyuzo jumped into the flash space, feeling the desire to hit flowing out of the zanpakutou in his hand. Instinct brought the sheath, now also a blade to the right position, instinct put his feet in the right place, instinct drew the blade at the perfect time, and landed a huge slice across Atsuras chest, from low on the right, all the way up to the left shoulder. The slash cut clean through Atsuras zanpakutou and sent the boy flying. To all the observers, Kyuzo had simply disappeared and reappeared about the same time as Atsura went flying, blood gushing out of the deep wound across his chest.

Atsura was coughing up blood on the floor several metres away. His reiatsu still blazing in fury, and his eyes burning red with hate, Kyuzo stalked over to his fallen opponent. He was still conscious but was too busy trying to keep breathing to say anything. "Pathetic" Kyuzo spat out, and raised his blade, unaware of the unease that had descended on the arena. The announcer was screaming "Enough. Stop this now!" but Kyuzo wasn't hearing any of it. All his attention was fixed on the floor in front of him, every iota of his existence looking forward to sinking his sword into the top of Atsuras head. He had swung about an inch when the two figures blurred into existence next to him. The two white coated forms having left the audience to intervene.

Sui Fong held her blade to his throat with one hand, and had seized the wrist of his left hand with the other. That same left hand still held the shining second blade of his released zanpakutou. The second taichou, a slender and almost fragile looking man with flowing white hair caught his right wrist fractions of a second after he began what would certainly have been a fatal blow to the student on the floor. He laid a calming hand on the shoulder of the furious student and said soothingly; "That's enough. You are the clear victor." As soon as his predicament became apparent Kyuzo dropped his grip on both the swords he held, which immediately faded out of existence. When it became apparent to the two taichous that it was no longer his intention to kill in cold blood one of his fellow students, they released their collective grip on him, but nevertheless took up a position between him and the prone form of Atsura, now surrounded by shinigami from the 4th Division.

"What were you thinking? You could have killed him, you fool!" It was the 2nd Division taichou that spoke first. Kyuzo remained silent, certain that there was nothing he could really say. Before Sui Fong could continue her admonition, the second taichou laid his hand on her shoulder. She looked round and he shook his head imperceptibly, then turned to the student before them, still immobile where they had left him. "I am Ukitake Jyushiro, taichou of the 13th Division. And you are just Kyuzo. You are the reason I came to this event today, and I have not been disappointed." He could feel the anger literally boiling out of Sui Fong next to him, but he knew the disciplinarian in her would be too much. The boy would simply retreat further into the shell he was in now. Ukitake continued; "What did he say to you? What was it that made you lose your temper? From what I have heard of you, that has not happened once since you came to Soul Society." The tension obvious in the students' posture lessened slightly. "He said exactly the right thing." Before the two taichous could question further, their attention was stolen by one of the healers; "Excuse me Sui Fong-taichou, Ukitake-taichou. We must move Kaneda to the 4th Division headquarters for further treatment." Sui Fong answered the man with a dismissive gesture and an impatient "Do it." When they turned round, Kyuzo was walking back towards the preparation area. Ukitake spoke, in a voice that was clearly not a suggestion; "Let him go." Sui Fong stopped mid footstep. She didn't protest, instead opting to stalk away.


	8. Chapter 8

Things didn't improve for Kyuzo in the days after the exhibition tournament. Students flinched out of his way in the corridors, actively avoided him in lectures and point blank refused to train with him in any of the combat disciplines. Not that he really cared. There was a steady bitterness rising in him, a complete indifference to all these people and their herd mentality. It was just about the same as what he had felt when he was alive; aside from the select few that mattered to him – family, a couple of immediate friends – he simply didn't care. The tables in the mess hall sat sixteen, but he had one to himself all the time. He'd been told that there was a committee deciding what punishment he would face for seriously injuring another student. The rumours, whispered behind hands when he was supposedly out of earshot and written on notes handed around in classes, were that expulsion was the only option.

A week had passed. He'd spoken to nobody except a few short interchanges with instructors. He was told to stop coming to Zanjutsu, Hakudo and Shunpo classes, that he was good enough to sit the exams in a couple of months. Even in Kido he simply turned up, watched a few demonstrations, practised and then left. Had it not been for his obvious strength, he was sure there would be open attacks on him. But he was past caring. His mind was made up. He would leave the academy. And the Court of Pure Souls. Screw the Gotei 13. Retreat to Rukongai. And the tenth night after the fight with Atsura, he did exactly that.

He'd been to the library that day, and scoured the kido section for a few volumes he would take with him; he fully intended to continue training when he was gone. He'd scouted out the walls of the academy compound during his free time recently. He'd looked at a map, and decided which gate he would use to go into Rukongai. Fortune was on his side; the night was cloudy, so there was no moonlight. Dressed in his own clothes, he left his room in the early hours of the morning; not a soul was to be seen. Using flash steps, he entered the library building through a third floor window and quickly picked out the books he wanted, packing them into the bag he had brought with him. His next stop was the kitchens, where he supplied himself with as much simple food as he could carry. Crossing the wall was a simple matter; it was not so high that he couldn't jump it. He then struck out for the south gate out of the Court of Pure Souls.

He came to the plaza in front of the gate, which was deserted, and looked at the gate itself; closed but not locked, and unguarded. "Too easy" he thought to himself. The voice sounded from the shadows behind him; "Where will you go?" Startled, Kyuzo turned, and saw Ukitake standing in the shadows at the mouth of an alleyway. He didn't answer, but watched warily as the white-haired man moved out of the shadows; "Stay at the academy. You are skilled enough to graduate at the end of this term. Put this incident behind you, and join the Gotei 13." Kyuzo had considered this. He knew that with all the free time he had now that he was effectively thrown out of three quarters of the classes he could easily improve his kido to class 7 standard, from its current class 4. He had already been moved to Shunpo and Hakudo 7 since he joined. Ukitake had merely confirmed what he already knew. Sensing that the youth wouldn't answer, Ukitake tried another tack. "Will you instead scratch out an existence in Rukongai?" At this Kyuzo smiled. He'd been underestimated. The taichou hadn't grasped that he was going away to train in peace.

Ukitake watched the smile spread across the face of the child in front of him. Despite his strengths, he was still very young (compared to Ukitake who had lived for several centuries) and lacked the maturity to be called an adult. His immediate reaction to the smile was that he had succeeded, and there would be no breakout on this night. "Somewhere. Anywhere." The two words made no sense to the taichou, but they were the answer to his first question. With that Kyuzo turned and walked into the gatehouse, opening the huge doors that were one of four ways across the bloodstone barrier around the Court of Pure Souls. With one glance at Ukitake, still stood in the same spot, considering just how badly he had misjudged Kyuzo, he passed through the gate, throwing the words back over his shoulder "Don't look for me."

* * *

He wasn't staying in Rukongai. He was going further afield, out in the wilderness that surrounded the sprawling settlement. He wanted to get as far away from the Court of Pure Souls as possible, so he flash stepped continuously until the buildings around him began to thin; from the well built and maintained townships of the better districts, through the gradually degrading conditions, until all that was around him were little better than shacks; on his way through he thought they might well collapse if he leant on them the wrong way. Finally the evidence of inhabitation had thinned enough. Everything around him screamed ghost town. All that was missing from the complete desolation was the tumbleweed tossed around on the breeze.

It struck him that the people who lived in this place must know nothing other than desperation; there was no comfort here. A soul that had no power, no reiatsu, needed only water to survive. In his time at the academy he'd learned that Rukongai was largely ungoverned, and almost entirely dysfunctional. An eternity in this undeveloped hole, unable to die, unable to leave. Those with strength went to the Court of Pure Souls, and those without were ignored. He shuddered inwardly at the thought of a life so miserable; this was no paradise. There was a hint of pity for the people who endured this, but it passed in such a small fraction of a second that it would be irrelevant to any ordinary person. To Kyuzo that amounted to a massive display of emotion. He moved on, out into the wilderness.

The mountains in the distance were his target. The terrain would provide plentiful hiding places, and hopefully be forbidding enough that there would be no local inhabitants, and enough wildlife to sustain him – the food he'd stolen from the academy would only last so long. Certainly there was animal life in the forests – he'd seen boar and deer. No doubt there would be fish somewhere as well – all the food that fed the shinigami had to come from somewhere. There would be no shortage of food, wherever he ended up. Of this he was sure.

It took a couple of days at an easy flash pace to reach the mountain range. When he finally started climbing the foothills, the Court of Pure Souls was a blip on the otherwise undisturbed horizon. Estimating distances didn't matter. Even with his reiatsu enhanced senses cast out as far as he could send them, there wasn't even the merest shred of reiatsu reaching him. He had come far enough. The mountain range proved to be quite large, with several rocky ridges, chains of peaks, sub-ridges jutting out into lush valleys, undisturbed forests everywhere there was shelter. One particular ridge caught his attention. It was a large curve, not too dissimilar to a horseshoe, with seven peaks along it's length, another ridge spiking out from each of them. The valleys these ridges formed were deep, and most had rivers running along the bottom. Inside the curvature, the ground fell away sharply from the ridge, the sloped off into a grassy plain. There were a couple of ascents up to the low points between a couple of peak pairs. It was what he was looking for; something that reminded him of his mindscape, somewhere to train.


	9. Chapter 9

First came the kido training. The books he'd stolen from the library were useful for a little while, but it was the spell listing he used most. Practising the incantations over and over again until the images they evoked in his minds eye were cast in stone in his memory. The tricky part was going through all of the images mentally in the shortened time it took to utter the name of the spell when casting without the chant. He'd built shelters in all of the valleys that fell away from the main ridge, and he moved between them to hunt the animals that populated the area. The delay in getting himself situated in the middle of nowhere meant it took him a full month to get all of the 30's level spells down without laboriously chanting out the entire incantation. The 40's took longer, and he gave up in the mid 50's, desperate for a change. So he turned to flash steps.

His ability in flash steps was improving significantly. He could jump from anywhere in the area he frequented to the summit of the highest peak. But he still wasn't happy with the technique itself, frustrated with its excessive use of force. There had to be a more _subtle_ way to do these things. He focussed on the nature of the flash space. His inner senses had long ago told him what the form was – it was the ocean that lingered beneath the surface of matter, reached by pushing through, and was easily disturbed by reiatsu. Using reiatsu to create a shockwave and then surfing this to your destination – it was never described like this at the academy, but that was the most succinct way of putting it. But the shockwave was ridden in the real world. Surely it would be more efficient if he could move his entire body into the flash space? No resistance, no obstacles. And instead of riding one massive ripple, a continuous stream of reiatsu could propel the user at much higher speeds. But there was no room there; the gap between the liquid surface and the real world was just too small.

This problem frustrated Kyuzo for a long time. He even went as far as talking to his zanpakutou about it, but Edge could offer him nothing, the two voices intertwined as eerily as ever making the disparaging comments even more annoying to the youth. He was sitting in his favoured location to relax, the flat rock on the summit of the top peak, which he had unconsciously named Everest, and was focusing on as small an area of ground as he could, trying to get as detailed a view of the flash space as he could. The image was blurred and unclear, but there were recurring themes. Sometimes he could see his surroundings reflected on the ocean surface, sometimes it was another area, not the same, but sharing the blue sky, the sun, the mountains, but there were other people there. He surmised that this was the real world, but couldn't be sure. Getting a clear view was nigh on impossible; the ocean that sat just beneath the surface was never quite still, the minor ripples caused by the trickle of reiatsu he couldn't contain always seemed to disturb the surface and obscure his view. It was the third prevalent image that sparked the most curiosity out of him though; it always seemed to be night there, a crescent moon adorning the sky, and a white expanse stretching as far as could be seen. But still the answer wouldn't come to him. And he was tired of trying to get his whole body into the flash space. He had improved though. His accuracy was better and he'd been trying to work out how best to combine it into his fighting style. Using the speed to close distance and attack in one fell swoop was the obvious conclusion, as he had done in his duel with Kaneda.

He finally tired of shunpo, and moved on to the ultimate point of his self imposed exile; he wanted to achieve bankai. The fact that it took years of training and most shinigami never got near it didn't put him off in the slightest; most shinigami didn't manifest a zanpakutou until they were dead, so he figured he had a head start on them. Calling the spirit of his blade into the material world didn't take him long, but Edge wasn't forthcoming at all about bankai, and generally refused point blank to explain why, usually offering nothing more than _"You are not ready for bankai yet."_

So the routine began. Practising kido spells, slowly increasing the distance he could flash step and arguing with his zanpakutou. Edge had taken to following him round and commentating sardonically on his attempts to improve, and the apparition was particularly biting when it came to kido spells blowing up in his face. It struck Kyuzo that his zanpakutou was very similar to him in personality; closed off and guarded, with a very dry sense of humour and generally no interested in anyone else. If the roles were reversed, Kyuzo was pretty sure he would be holding back on bankai as well. But this knowledge didn't stop him getting pissed at the sarcastic spirit. After a particularly frustrating session on the low 60's Ways of Destruction, he finally lost his temper.

"Will you shut up for once! Fuck, you told me that you were MY power, but you refuse to tell me anything about how to achieve bankai, other than 'You're not ready for it yet' (in a very bad impression of the zanpakutou spirits eerie dual voice), and now you just stand around and annoy me." Kyuzo launched himself at Edge, his reiatsu flaring involuntarily and the sword itself forming unbidden in his left hand. The spirit of the sword easily caught the blow aimed at him with the sheathed sword, and held it tight.

"_Let your anger fuel you. It increases your reiatsu. You are not ready for bankai yet because you do not even know what your shikai can do. You have only used it ONCE!" _The two voices were rising in unison. _"You cannot improve in your use of us without practise. But we have been trapped in our sealed state for so long you have no idea what we can do!"_

Kyuzo's response was to wrench the weapon out of the hands of the spirit and snarl out the release; "Sever every last bond! EDGE!" More reiatsu flooded out of him, kicking up dust and rock from the hillside. The zanpakutou spirit was now holding an exact copy of the blade-within-a-blade shikai. He taunted Kyuzo; _"Come at us!"_

Kyuzo launched into a fierce flurry of attacks; broad swipe with the sheath, spin, draw of the main blade, follow through with the offhand, diagonal slash with both. There was no planning in his mind, he had never tried anything like this before; he was flying totally blind. Yet at some level he understood every attack, why it was good, what openings it left and every swing of the sword cemented the knowledge further into his mind. As the fight went on the youth started to notice some of the tactics his opponent was using; deftly spinning the blades in either hand so that the blade was either out of the top or bottom of his hand as and when necessary, thus adding another element of unpredictability to the overall fighting style, as well as rapidly resheathing the sword when the moment came to unleash on of the powerful sword draws. So Kyuzo started to imitate these moves, having only brief trouble getting used to them, but almost straight away they felt natural. If he hadn't been so busy venting frustration, he would have noticed how once again the ability to fight well seemed to come naturally, no learning necessary; it was just there one moment where nothing had been before.

After a while the two combatants separated. Kyuzo was breathing hard, and had numerous scratches, while Edge seemed totally unscathed. But the sword-spirit was not satisfied; _"Not enough! All you are learning are swordsmanship techniques! You could have learned that from anyone."_

"What the hell do you want me to do? I can't learn something without knowing what it is!"

"_You already know. You have been trying to perfect this since you left the academy. We will show you once. That should be enough"_

Before Kyuzo had a chance to respond the spirit blurred out of existence, and had both blades crossed in front of his throat. They had both been using flash steps in the fight, and Kyuzo was sure that he had the measure of his weapon. The spirit slowly withdrew, the two blades he had been holding dissolving into thin air.

"That wasn't an ordinary flash step. What did you do?"

"_Look. Examine where we moved from, and where we moved to. You already know the answer."_

Kyuzo focussed his senses on the ground where Edge had been standing. There was no ripple left over from flash steps; the gap between the dimensions the he called the flash space was massively deformed, but the unexplainable ocean that occupied that space was perfectly still. He changed his focus to where the spirit had been stood a few moments ago. It was the same; the space seemed to be much larger, but there was no evidence of the massive tidal waves it took to move that quickly. Puzzled, he looked at the zanpakutou, which was watching him intently. Turning the problem over in his mind, he stumbled over the answer, and once again the second it hit him he knew it was right, and exactly how to copy it.

"You moved round the flash space in a bubble of reiatsu… Not disturbing the liquid film that everyone else uses. Totally untraceable, and impossible to follow…" He was thinking out loud more than anything. So lost in thought, he missed the slight smile that played across both the faces of his sword. He was still going over all the possibilities of this discovery when his train of thought was interrupted.

"_Try it."_

Kyuzo looked up, grinned briefly, and then vanished from sight, appearing instantly on another peak. For a second he was off balance – that was the first time he had totally submerged himself in the flash space, but it passed momentarily. His head was buzzing though. This kind of speed… it must be unheard of. And he'd only just started. With practise he would improve. Edge appeared next to him.

"_Good. That was an elementary use of what our power will allow you to do. Our gift to you is the mastery of the flash space. Only because of that knowledge can you move that fast. You already know how much faster it is than flash steps don't you?"_

"No resistance from the real world; four, five times faster?"

"_Depending on the user of flash steps, but yes that's about right. Now I will show you what it is used for in combat"_

Almost immediately after the zanpakutou finished speaking, his outline started to vibrate and blur, and then he slowly separated so that there were two identical figures stood next to each other, and then a third, a fourth. As the numbers went up they formed a circle around Kyuzo, with no difference at all between them. Then they started moving, rotating around him. There was no movement of feet, the images simply slid sideways across the ground. Already his mind was analysing the uses for this technique; so far it was obvious. "Any opponent won't be able to tell the real one from the fakes, so I'll be able to attack freely. No. Not fakes. Moving round the flash space and pressing on the barrier... not really any danger to me. Everywhere and nowhere…" The words were again spoken to nobody in particular. A smile spread across his face; he had new things to do; more stuff to add to his training, and thoughts of bankai still lurked at the back of his mind.


	10. Chapter 10

Ukitake watched the gate close behind the youth and the words he'd flung back still hung in the air, the venom with which they had been spoken very much apparent. He sighed, feeling rather than hearing the arrival of the 2nd Division taichou.

"So much for the gentle approach" came Sui Fong's voice from the shadows behind him. "For all of his actions that you have correctly predicted, another three have been completely wrong." She paced up to stand next to him, as Kyuzo's reiatsu signature got further and further away. "His growth is nothing short of spectacular. He should have been taken out of the academy. Until he can control himself he will always be a danger to those around him."

"Perhaps he knows that in the recesses of his mind? I do not think he will stay away from here for too long. He will improve much from training alone, but I'm sure he will reach a limit and then return here. And he will want to test his strength." Ukitakes voice was as mild as ever, in sharp contrast to the hard tones of the woman standing beside him. He also ignore the reprieve that was implies by her words; he knew it hadn't crossed her mind and she was merely stating the facts as she saw them. "Are you going to keep tabs on him? I think he will spot anyone you send quite easily."

"Whatever he is capable of, he needs to be tracked. The incident at the academy won't stay secret forever. And there's always the 12th Division." Kurotsuchi would no doubt have some machine hidden away in the Technological Development Bureau that would allow him to track reiatsu signatures over large distances. Ukitake and Sui Fong were simultaneously thinking about how they could get the cantankerous taichou to cooperate.

"We'll ask Kurotsuchi-fukutaichou if it comes to that." It was the whiter haired man that spoke first, uttering the conclusion that both had reached. As far as she was concerned the conversation was over so she melted back into the shadows and vanished. Ukitake remained where he was, looking at the night sky and contemplating what the future may hold for Kyuzo, and thinking it should be bright.

Over the next couple of months the two ran into each other on a few occasions, mostly the taichous meetings that were held whenever necessary. While Kyuzo himself was never brought up on any of these occasions, they always found a moment for a quiet word, mostly so Ukitake could find out if the scouts that he knew Sui Fong had out in Rukongai and beyond had found anything. Eventually they did.

* * *

Kyuzo was getting good at using his shikai. With his zanpakutou released he could project a spinning circle of images and attack from any point in that circle, usually with one of his fierce sword draws. And the distances he could cover were spectacular. From standing on the top of Everest, his favourite place in his sprawling domain, he could pick up a stone, drop it from shoulder height, jump to every peak in the ridge and get back to the start again in time to catch the stone before it hit the floor. But there was one thing that was missing. He couldn't attack directly from the flash space. If he was projecting, the moment he launched his attack all the other images vanished, since they were maintained by his presence in the flash space. His zanpakutou refused to explain why that was, but Kyuzo had gotten used to things going from unexplainable to crystal clear within a heartbeat, so he relented and accepted that 'all would become clear' eventually.

When the shinigami approached he was furious. Granted they were several miles away, right on the limits of his perception and they were totally unknown to him. But still. Shinigami, this far out in the wilderness, when there were no souls for miles around. They could only conceivably be looking for him, and he most certainly didn't want them stumbling into his mountain range. They were still on the great sweeping plain as far as he could tell. Five of them, moving a kilometre or two, spaced out, then bunching up again, then moving again. The process repeated. He decided to confront them, but didn't want to use his flash jumping, the term he'd given his shikai enhanced movement, in front of them. So he jumped to within a few kilometres of them, sealed his zanpakutou and waited. They had no doubt felt his reiatsu use, if not from the jump then most certainly from his unsealed zanpakutou. Within a few minutes they were close. And then they were all on the hill in front of him, five men dressed the same as the six that came to the living world with Sui Fong just after he was murdered. The 2nd Division, the Secret Mobile Corps. He didn't give them a chance to speak, he just unleashed the full force of his reiatsu, and with his anger pushing it higher none of them managed to stay on their feet.

"What the fuck are you doing here? I told you not to look for me!" One of them managed to get his head up for long enough to whisper a few words; "Orders.. search.. reiatsu.." It was clearly a gargantuan effort to get those few words out, so Kyuzo lessened the amount of pressure he was putting on the five ninjas. Two of them managed to get to their knees. The same one, clearly the strongest of the five spoke again.

"We were ordered to search for any reiatsu signatures in this area, and then report back to our division. We weren't looking for any particular person out here." It was the pre-agreed cover story, with a training exercise to fall back on.

"BULLSHIT!" Kyuzo bawled back, the force of his response causing the shinigami in front of him to flinch. "There's nobody within 20 miles of here, only me. And you're second division. It's either her or that white haired pansy looking for me. FUCK!" The last profanity was more out of exasperation at being found. Now he would have to move. Find somewhere else to be alone and do what needed doing. His immense frustration immediately manifested in an increase in the amount of reiatsu he was pushing out, and all five men were effectively pinned to the floor again. He gave the five men one lance withering glare. It was only when Kyuzo flash stepped away that they could stand. After a short conversation, they agreed that a message should be sent back to the Court of Pure Souls immediately, and they should attempt to follow the shinigami they had encountered, who was undoubtedly the subject of their search. All five were skilled at detecting reiatsu over a distance, an essential skill for an SMC ninja, so trailing the rogue academy student – they all knew about his history having been hand picked and thoroughly briefed by Sui Fong – should not have been hard.

A couple of miles away Kyuzo had summoned his sword into his hands, having let it dematerialize while he had waited, and then immediately spoke; "Sever every last bond, Edge!" Now with his shikai, he covered the distance back to his mountain retreat almost instantly and collected the handful of things he wanted to keep, and then set off in an arbitrary direction away from the five ninjas and everything they represented. The five SMC soldiers rapidly lost track of him, absolutely outclassed by the speed he could muster and maintain.

* * *

A lone hell butterfly fluttered down into the 2nd division headquarters, making straight for the window of the taichous' office. Sui Fong noticed it straight away, and the black and purple winged messenger came to rest on her outstretched finger.

"Subject encountered, approx 300 kilometres south of Court of Pure Souls. Appeared within detection radius of standard search pattern. Demonstrated taichou level reiatsu when confronted. Fled after short exchange. Retreated to nearby mountain range. Contact lost shortly afterwards. Evidence of inhabitation found. Request scanning assistance and further orders. Search Squad Three."

The butterfly flapped out, and Sui Fong considered the report. She knew the men she had sent would not lose a reiatsu trace so easily, especially one of taichou level, which was something else worth thinking about. He had grown to taichou level in the sparse few months since she had last seen him; he had easily been equal to her own fukutaichou when he had fought on the academy exhibition day, but to make such a significant jump in such a short time was almost unheard of. She also knew that sneaking up on anyone in her division was virtually impossible, so the sudden appearance was also curious. All in all this was an intriguing matter. She knew it would be best to keep the 13th Division taichou in the loop, so she sent off another hell butterfly, and then set off in the direction of the 12th headquarters. Hopefully she would be able to convince Nemu to do what she needed without having to deal with the undoubtedly insane taichou once she got there.

* * *

A couple of days later Ukitake and Sui Fong met at the 13th division headquarters, ostensibly to talk about the new intake from the academy, but once they were behind closed doors the discussion had only one topic. Sui Fong started;

"The 12th Division is tracking him. I get daily reports from Nemu. She seems to have slipped it in under Mayuri's radar." She was stating facts that she knew Ukitake knew, but she wanted his opinions before she started venturing her own.

"Where was he? And where is he now?"

"The mountain range just visible from the Soukyoku hill is apparently where he was, and he is now in a smaller but entirely forested range a bit further away. Some 375 kilometres." Ukitake considered this information. When it became clear she would have to speak first, Sui Fong spoke.

"We cannot keep this a secret for too long. And this level of strength cannot be allowed to exist in Soul Society outside of the Gotei 13."

"I agree. I'm just not sure he will want to come back. But I'm not sure where he would fit in. I doubt he would join either of our divisions, 1, 4 and 12 all seem unlikely as well. And in order to convince him to return he will have to be recruited directly into a division. He most certainly won't return to the academy."

"So basically whichever taichou convinces him to return will have to take him into their division. And you don't think either of us should do it?"

"Maybe Kyouraku-taichou. I can fill him in…"

"I'll go. I want him." She had interrupted, which was not uncommon, but it was what she wanted to do that was so out of character for the diminutive taichou.

"Why do you want a swordsman? Doesn't really fit in with what your division stands for. What use do you have for him?"

"He's a lone wolf. And strong. There's only one thing any Division could use him for. He'll never fit into a squad sized unit – his strength and demeanour will make him an outcast. I can give him work he will want, and conditions he will want." She didn't have to explain any further. The elder taichou knew what she was referring to; the Special Dispatch Officers. Every division had one. A lone shinigami whose responsibility was to scout the living world and deliver reconnaissance reports on hollow activity, human developments and abnormal spirits. In most divisions the position was rotated around, since it was deemed to be irrelevant and didn't cover any of the real tasks of a real world posting; purifying hollows and sending people on to Soul Society. Ukitake had no idea who his own current SDO was. He left all of that to Kiyone and Sentarou, his perennially argumentative but fanatically loyal 3rd seats. But it was different in the 2nd Division. He was one of three people, Sui Fong and the soutaichou being the other two, who knew of the extra responsibilities that position carried. The 2nd Division SDO was the primary weapon of Soul Society in the living world. On top of the standard duties, this office carried the task of purifying pretty much every hollow of above 10th seat standard that appeared. It was not an easy post to fill, due to the above average strength required, the inability to advance in seated rank and the solitary nature of the posting. It had been unoccupied for several decades. A few seconds reflection was all it took for Ukitake to conclude that it was the perfect job for the wayward Kyuzo.

"You will approach him soon?" He asked. The response he got was a cold stare as Sui Fong stood and left the office. Her reiatsu faded quickly; the grey eyed ninja had gone straight to find him.


	11. Chapter 11

The approaching reiatsu of taichou level was enough to rouse Kyuzo from the meditative trance he had been in, again trying to convince Edge to teach him about bankai. Immediately he recognised the reiatsu. Something he had come to understand in his brief time in the academy was the uniqueness of an individual's reiatsu signature. From one shinigami to the next it was as singular as a fingerprint; sometimes taking influence from the zanpakutou, sometimes a particular personality of physical trait of the individual in question. And the reiatsu hitting him left the unmistakeable image of a swarm of bees and hornets in his mind. Sui Fong was coming, though she was still far enough away that his own damped down reiatsu should have been indistinguishable to her. He waited, knowing she must be flying blind, and hoping somewhat unrealistically that she would pass by the wooded hills he had chosen to make a second stab at home in. The dense woods helped him gain control of his flash jumping; he had to precise or he would end up hitting trees too often. But he had only been here a few days; how could they have found him again so quickly?

Sui Fong was headed straight towards him, this much he could tell. Not too keen on believing in coincidences, he decided to confront her. He rose from the cross legged position he'd been sitting in, with Edge sheathed and balanced across his knees. Keeping the weapon materialised, he flash stepped out of the forest and had appeared behind Sui Fong before she had even sensed his movement. She turned to face him, noting his obvious combat readiness from the stance he had taken. It was his standard draw, weight on his left foot, crouched slightly, left hand just below the hilt (if you could call it a hilt on this particular weapon), thumb poised to loose the sword those couple of millimetres from the scabbard in prelude to the devastating slash that would follow. His right hand wasn't actually on the grip, but there was only a few inches space between them.

"Why the fuck are you here? Didn't your puppets get the point the other day?" His voice was ice cold, not a trace of emotion. His reiatsu was under tight control, barely a trickle escaping, but the anger he was emanating swirled around him in massive waves of killing intent. In the depths of his mind reason was arguing that killing a taichou would only make things more troublesome for him, but reason was quickly beaten into submission by the fury coursing through his veins.

"I have come with an offer for you, Kyuzo. Join my division of the Gotei 13, all your transgressions at the academy will be forgotten, you will not have to take the graduation exams, and you will answer to nobody but me." She saw his mind whirring behind his eyes. He had clearly not expected anything other than a forcible attempt to return him. His suspicions were not eased at all by the offer.

"How did you find me? This is some 60K from where I was before. And my reiatsu isn't exactly easy to trace over that kind of distance…." He let it hang in the air, and was surprised when Sui Fong actually came clean.

"The 12th Division has devices capable of tracking a reiatsu signature, no matter how small, over much greater distances. We've been tracking you ever since my men found you last week." Kyuzo made a dismissive noise, as if the information was irrelevant now that it was public. But the scowl on his face deepened.

"I refuse. I will never willingly enter any of the divisions. The stench of hypocrisy is too much for me to bear." His voice was rising. "You spend so much time in the real world, protecting the living humans, but as soon as they come here they are abandoned in Rukongai, at the mercy of the gangs that no doubt run riot. Anyone with any strength goes to live in the Court on Pure Souls and the others might as well not exist as far as the shinigami hierarchy is concerned. Only the nobles and their needs are important." He checked his rant, knowing it would make no difference. He didn't actually care about the souls abandoned in Rukongai, it was the absolute stupidity that had lead to such a situation that he hated. The disgust was still apparent on his face. His eyes were narrowing. He wanted to attack this woman who had brought him here. The living world was what he knew and where he had wanted to stay.

"Don't be a fool. If you attack me you will just make yourself an enemy of the Gotei 13. With your strength you would be an asset. And you would spend all your time in the living world." Sui Fong was trying to get as many cards on the table as she could before the inevitable fight started. She knew she would win, but it clearly wouldn't be as easy as their previous encounter. "Killing hollows that are too strong for the shinigami posted in the real world. Reporting directly to me, and nobody else."

"I told you. I refuse. Find someone else to be your assassin." He stated flatly. "Now are you going to leave or will we have to dispense with the pleasantries?" He knew that was provocative, but now he was itching for a fight; he wanted to measure his strength and the taichou who had so comprehensively beaten him before would be an excellent yardstick for his own power. Sui Fong glared at him. He wanted her to attack first, so she obliged, launching into a punch aimed directly at his solar plexus. Kyuzo saw it coming, had seen it in her eyes before she moved and knew she was still underestimating him. He simply caught the wrist that was flying towards him, and smirked at the taichou who was still gaping in surprise when he landed a vicious strike with his sheathed sword to her unguarded ribs. She landed on her feet a few metres away, but breathing heavily. She felt like she'd been kicked by a mule, and thought that a couple of her ribs were even fractured. Kyuzo was happy at having so quickly yanked the floor out from under her conceptions about him. "Perhaps now you'll take me seriously?" His mild tone only made her more annoyed, exactly as it had been intended.

She caught more of her breath back and stood, slowly drawing her sword and stabbing it into the ground. As Kyuzo watched with curiosity, she discarded her sash and white taichous haori, as well as the black outer she was wearing, leaving her in a backless and armless top, but with long gloves covering most of her arms. "The punitive combat uniform of the supreme commander of the Secret Mobile Corps." She picked up her sword again. Pointing it straight at him, she spoke again; "Poison to death with your deadly sting, Suzumebachi." The sword shrank and wrapped lovingly around her right forearm, a large sting like spike left protruding from the middle finger. Kyuzo grinned widely, and spoke again. "Shikai. Suppose I will too. Sever every last bond, Edge." Once again he was holding his blade within a blade. He knew Sui Fong had seen it before, but he wasn't concerned about that. He had his flash jumping and projection that she hadn't seen. Something which he hadn't noticed happening while he was training was the expansion of the markings from his hands and up his arms. From the central diamonds on the palm and back of each hand, the black vines had grown most of the way up the inside of his bracers, and now that he had unsealed his zanpakutou they uncoiled further. Only his right arm was uncovered, left completely unhindered by his clothing, but the sight of the markings growing and unfurling all the way up to his shoulder piqued the curiosity of the 2nd Division taichou.

"What are those markings on your arm?"

"The symbol of unity between me and my zanpakutou." The words came unbidden to him, never having thought about it before. More knowledge sprang into his head, a stream of thoughts, theories and conclusions flashing through him in a fraction of a second; "Both arms. Growing the better I become at using Edge, and as he is unsealed. Towards the shoulder. Then the chest. BANKAI! When they meet? Do they meet only in bankai? More power! The bigger they are the stronger I will get!" A huge smile spread across his face. Another piece of the puzzle had slipped into place. He started raising his reiatsu and the black tendrils started growing out of the marks, something else Sui Fong had never seen. She was about to question him further when he vanished. "Slow," he whispered in her ear, before she had even registered his movement. She leapt away, spinning in midair, landing and launching herself back at him in the same movement. He had drawn his sword while she moved and swung it viciously, so she had to block with the metal wristguard of her shikai. They were locked together, each pushing reiatsu into the deadlock. Kyuzo had the advantage in height terms, and he had a second weapon. At his side, he flipped the sheath round so it was held like a sword, and swung under Sui Fongs guard, a swing that would have left a large gash across his opponents' abdomen, had she not sprung out of the way. He didn't wait for her to regain balance and footing, but attacked straight out. With two swords, he had a significant range advantage over Sui Fong, and he intended to make the most of it. He unleashed a series of slashes with enough ferocity to force the small taichou back several paces, unable to dodge or block them all with the wristguard of her unsealed zanpakutou. He finally relented, a savage smile spread across his face as his opponent bled from half a dozen light gashes.

"Having some trouble, Sui Fong-_taichou_?" He poured as much sarcasm as he could into the title, none of which was missed. He may have had a range advantage, but Sui Fong was far more nimble and her flash steps were of a much higher level, or so at least she thought. And she had far more experience than him. She closed the distance to him in a miniscule fraction of a second, attacking with everything. Knees, elbows, kicks and punches all connected in a flurry of flash steps. The stinger left her bee crest in four places on Kyuzo's body. He studied them inquisitively. There was no pain, but he was in no doubt that there was some catch to them. He stepped up his reiatsu a notch and decided it was time to demonstrate one of his newfound skills. Sui Fong was speaking again.

"You are a fool if you think you can beat me on raw power alone." He smirked to himself. More underestimation.

"Who said that was all I have?"

He flash jumped behind her, held his blade across her throat for the merest fragment of time, then jumped back to where he had been. Sui Fong barely saw his outline flicker, but she had definitely felt his blade touching her neck. "Impossible," she thought to herself, "nobody can move that fast." But he was gone again. He was showing off, he knew this, but the look on her face was utterly priceless. He took to jumping round her, staying in one place long enough for her to determine his location then move again before she could turn towards him. He wasn't even a blur, not disturbing the air as he moved around in his reiatsu pockets in the flash space. Sui Fong had given up trying to use her eyes to track him and was using only his reiatsu. When he stopped, ten feet in front of her, she slowly opened them again, fixing him with her stony glare. "One more" he thought to himself, and jumped again.

He was stood in front of her, his blades crossed and ready to scissor her head off. "Do you like the improvements I have made to the flawed shunpo technique?" Sui Fong was speechless. This student who had been at the academy only a few months ago had somehow surpassed the limits of shunpo, outclassing the greatest user of flash steps that she could think of, her sometime mentor and now hated adversary, Shihouin Yoruichi. And now he had a blade either side of her neck and her mind was still racing to explain what she had just seen. She barely noticed when he lowered his blades and sheathed the main hand. "You can go now. I'm staying here. Don't send anyone else" he said, turning to walk away. Sui Fong recovered her senses in an instant and flash stepped in front of him, the point of her zanpakutou stopping just above one of the crests, this one on his exposed right shoulder.

"Suzumebachi will always kill an enemy who is hit in the same place twice. Will you throw away your life for some misguided notion of pride? Or will you fight for something higher?" In one fluid motion she swept his legs out from under him, caught his right arm and twisted him into a hold, all the while keeping the tip of her weapon and the certain death it contained no more than a few inches from its target. He was in no position to fight back. Kyuzo scowled at her.

"And just what would this higher cause be? Your promotion prospects?" he sneered at her, despite his obviously disadvantageous position.

"Order. The balancing of souls between the living and spiritual worlds. Become my weapon in the living world, and go back to what you know. Kill hollows and the chaos they represent." It was a powerful argument as far as the taichou was concerned. Kyuzo grunted a response from his knees; "Sounds great." Sui Fong tightened her grip, not happy with his sarcasm. "What if I refuse?"

"Soul Society cannot allow someone as powerful as you to exist as a rogue force. You will be hunted and imprisoned, probably executed. That is if you can escape from me now, which you can't. So. Fight for me, or die." Unhappy as he was with the arrangement, he was almost tempted, mostly by the return to the real world, and lack of direct supervision. He didn't really care about the whole order versus chaos argument; the status quo was just fine with him. All he really wanted was time to reach his bankai. And fighting some hollows – any experience was worth having.

"No more academy?" The hold on him lessened slightly when he'd spoken. Sui Fong knew this might be a sticking point, but between herself and Ukitake they should be able to clear it. "No. You will come straight to the 2nd Division. There will be no records; you are already listed as having been expelled from the academy. Those that graduate may one day recognise you, but it will be irrelevant by then." She didn't add that it was a requirement of the post he would be going into, such was the secrecy it warranted.

Kyuzo relented. "Okay. Let me get my things." She released him, but kept her zanpakutou unsealed and a wary eye on him. He had got back to his feet, and let his sword dissolve into thin air while dusting himself off. He turned to her; "It's quite a way to go. You coming?" He didn't wait for a response, just took off using standard flash steps, though at nowhere near his maximum capacity. He knew a taichou should easily be able to keep pace with him. He was gathering what little he wanted from one of his hillside encampments when she arrived, fully dressed again, and having sealed her zanpakutou. She watched in silence as he finished grabbing the handful of things he wanted and stuffed them in a bag, which he slung over his shoulder, and then the interrogation began.

The questions carried on until they hit open terrain, where it was impossible to talk because they were flash stepping all the way. Every break, every stop to get bearings the taichou probed, trying to get more of a feel for the youth she had effectively taken personal responsibility for, trying to gauge whether she could let him loose in the living world without going along herself to make sure he behaved. There was nobody in her division that could effectively monitor him, he was clearly stronger than all of them, including Omaeda, her sprawling second in command. There was a tiny suspicion in the back of her mind that once he reached bankai (about this she held no doubts, given his demonstrated rate of growth), she herself would be no match for him. And she wanted to have at least some influence on him before he surpassed her. Though she was unsure where he would fit in if he achieved bankai; there were no spaces for a new taichou, unless a new division were formed and that was unheard of. So all the way back to the Court of Pure Souls she chipped away at him, trying to get past the wall he put up. Kyuzo was well aware of what she was doing, and made absolutely no effort to engage, offering only the most rudimentary details about himself.


	12. Chapter 12

The living world again. Armed with a soul pager, which was little more than a mobile phone capable of transmitting to Soul Society, Kyuzo was sent back to the world he knew and preferred. At first he killed every hollow an alert was issued for. It turned out that they were actually very stupid, and seemed to regard all shinigami as an elephant might look at a fly; utterly irrelevant. But after a few months Kyuzo got bored of the low grade stuff and decided to leave it to the resident shinigami. Quite often he would find the hollow and kill it before the local shinigami could get to the scene. There were a few hilarious expressions of incomprehension at the almost immediate disappearance of the hollw on these unlucky shinigami, usually seen from a distance, before he flash jumped away again. He wanted to fight stronger hollows; anything that would improve his own skills. The desire for more strength struck him as slightly irrational, but didn't sway him from the chosen course. If he could improve his skills, why shouldn't he?

He already knew how he would be regarded when he returned to Soul Society. Nobody knew who he was; as far as they were concerned he was a weakling drafted permanently into a slot that was reserved for those unfit for active duty, an observer to be ignored. As far as he knew only Sui Fong and maybe Ukitake were aware what he was actually capable of, and while he was fine keeping it that way, the derision he knew would be directed at him struck a nerve. This was the afterlife, and people were still as immature and shortsighted as when he was at high school. As if the desire to grow stronger wasn't enough, he almost wanted to reach his bankai out of spite for all the hate that had been cast his way at the academy and would continue to be thrown in his direction during his brief returns to Soul Society.

So he went back to his training. There were plenty of places in the living world that were remote enough for him to train in peace, and with his flash jumping he could cover vast distances in very little time, so when his pager went off indicating there was a hollow he would have to deal with, it was no problem to get there before there was too much of a rampage. Not that it really mattered if a few plus souls got eaten; they would all be returned to Soul Society when the hollow was purified, so what did it matter? He almost established a routine, although somewhat irregular since hollows weren't exactly the best timekeepers. Killing hollows as necessary, eating and sleeping as necessary to keep his strength up, and every other waking hour, fighting Edge; sparring with the dual spirit of his sword, trying all the while to make sense of the cryptic advice he was offered.

It was during one of their heated arguments that he asked about the markings, and what they meant.

"When Sui Fong asked me, I called them the symbol of unity between me and you. But you never described them like that. You called them a bond, a bond that allowed me to call you. And I know what I said was true, I just don't know why. And that's happened a lot. Suddenly I know something that I've never learnt, like I knew it all along. What are these marks? What are they even called?"

"_They are indeed the symbol of our unity. You know that because we know that. Everything that we know, you also know, even though you may not know that you know it." _Kyuzo sighted. Edge was being even less forthcoming than usual.

"Why do they grow when I use shikai? And what are they called?"

"_You can call them resonata. They are somewhat unique, a physical representation of the union between us and you; between zanpakutou and wielder. As you use us more and become more accustomed to our power they will grow. So it is only natural that when we are released they grow. You have felt the joy we feel at our release, no?"_

"The desire to fight. Even when you are sealed I can feel it just by holding you. And it gets stronger when I want to fight..."

"_Exactly."_

"So as I become more used to you they will grow bigger. And also as I get stronger. What happens when they meet? Bankai?"

"_You know the answer to that already."_

"Gah, this again. Clutching at straws in my head. My favourite activity."

He thought for a while, turning the concept over in his head. "Resonata. Unity between wielder and weapon. So as we become more aligned, we become more powerful." He dropped out of his reverie. He'd almost become used to the burning sensation on his hands, but now he was curious.

"Why does it hurt?"

"_It is the price you pay for the power we offer."_

"That simple huh? No pain no gain kind of thing."

The zanpakutou didn't even dignify that with a response. Kyuzo drifted off again. Following the train of thoughts to its conclusion; "So does that mean if I want the same thing they do, I get bankai? Or maybe they have to also want whatever I want? Why can't they just want what I want?" The words from the first dream where they had conversed filled his mind; _"We are yours to command"_. The zanpakutou was standing before he could speak.

"_Finally you understand."_

Kyuzo leapt to his feet, blade already materialising in his hand, and immediately clashing with the identical one that had appeared in the hand of the sword spirit. Kyuzo growled and pushed into the lock. "You WILL do what I want, your will is my will, you WILL follow me!"

"_Why?" _The response was almost insolent.

"You are MY power, mine to command. You are subject to my desires! An extension of my will!" Kyuzo was shouting now, his reiatsu tearing up the ground around him.

"_WHY?" _

"BECAUSE YOU ARE PART OF ME! BECAUSE YOU MUST DEFER TO ME! GIVE ME BANKAI!" He screamed in response, with a massive flare of reiatsu, barely noticing the pain that shot up his arms and across his chest and back. The reiatsu flowing out of them obliterated all the clothing on his upper body, all except the dark red bracers on his forearms, and Edge vanished. Kyuzo was panting from the exertion. The resonata had spread up his arms; one cord originating from the palm and one from the back of each hand, each spiralling up in a double helix around his arms, with one from each arm spreading onto his chest and one onto his back. There they spiralled together to a larger diamond, identical in shape to the ones on his hands, right on his solar plexus and in a correspondingly central position on his back.

The voice of his zanpakutou whispered in his head; _"It is yours, as it always has been. Save it for a worthy opponent."_ Kyuzo could feel the reiatsu now at his disposal; it had grown significantly, even in his current state with Edge completely sealed and not even materialised he was now stronger than he had been before with shikai. And his bankai was cascading through his mind. He could see it, how to use it, how to call it and how to fight with it. He tilted his head back and laughed almost maniacally for a full five minutes before his pager went off. Duty called. And it was even easier now.

* * *

"You won't be going back to the real world for a while." He was in Soul Society again, in the 2nd Division headquarters. He had gone to Sui Fong's office expecting to be sent straight back to the Senakaimon after his standard week of rest. This was a disappointment; he hated hanging round the headquarters with nothing to do.

"Why?"

The taichou looked at him sharply, her disciplinarian streak flaring up at his lack of respect, and just as quickly squashed down; it didn't matter if he didn't address her by her title, he was effectively a non-entity. "Because there is some chance that there will be a group of ryoka attempting to enter the Court of Pure Souls, either to rescue Kuchiki Rukia or prevent the execution." This made Kyuzo sit up in a hurry.

"She's being executed? For what?"

"She gave her shinigami powers to a human. This is expressly forbidden. The Central 46 has passed judgement that she be executed for this crime."

Kyuzo was taken aback; he didn't know about any death penalty in Soul Society; they'd kept that quiet at the academy. With hindsight that seemed sensible.

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Stay here until after the execution, in case your, erm, services are needed."

"I have to sit around this place for three weeks?" that was a serious problem for him, "what the fuck am I supposed to do? Train? With who? Or shall I just sit here and pick my nose?" Sui Fong glared at him from the paperwork that was threatening to absorb her attention, and probably her evening as well.

"Do whatever you want. Just don't interfere with anything the division is doing. In fact, don't interact with anyone in the division at all. Either stay in your quarters or go somewhere else in the Court. I don't care."

Kyuzo sighed, picked up the sword that he kept materialised for appearances sake while he was in Soul Society, and stalked out of the door. Three weeks with nothing to do. Well at least he had some whisky he had quite illicitly brought back with him from the real world, and there were plenty of bars in the Court of Pure Souls. His unique position afforded him individual quarters and a salary that would make all seated officers and a number of fukutaichous wince. And he usually only had a few days to spend a few months worth. Now he had 3 weeks to kill. He grinned to himself; maybe not all bad. Above him the sky was darkening, so he decided to indulge in a meal out, and an amount of sake, much as he preferred whisky, he had only a limited supply.

* * *

The bar was fairly busy; but the food he was served was good, even if it took him an age to get the attention of the barkeep; he was more interested in the party of fukutaichous at the other end of the room. He had finished eating and was finishing up his bottle of sake when an obviously drunk shinigami sat down in front of him; red hair and tattooed face; this could only be Abarai Renji, the second in command of the 6th Division. He wasn't quite slurring but he was obviously not far off it.

"Oi you. I don't recognise you, never seen you in here before. Which division you from?" He was swaying as he spoke. This rapidly annoyed Kyuzo. This was why he hated shinigami. Always arguing about which division was "best". Who cares which taichou is strongest?

"2nd" The answer was a curt and dismissive as he could make it.

"Huuuh? You don't look like someone from 2nd." Renjis face was screwed up in confusion. "They never come out anyway, not even Omaeda. Besides, you look like a swordsman with clothes like that. Thought you might fancy a spar. What do you say?" Before Kyuzo could answer another voice shouted from across the room.

"Renji! Stop trying to start a fight, you'll only have to live down losing again" It was a bald headed man that Kyuzo didn't recognise that drowned out all the noise and made his voice heard. Renji immediately leapt to his feet and returned fire.

"SHUT UP ABOUT THAT ALREADY, YOU BALDY IKKAKU!" So it was the 11th Division 3rd seat, Madarame Ikkaku. Kyuzo closed his eyes and wished for silence. He heard Renji move away to the other side of the bar and start brawling, presumably with Ikkaku. Someone else was leaning over his table though, he could feel the reiatsu, and there was a scent as well. He finished his cup of sake before opening his eyes. The woman before him had long red-blond hair and light blue eyes, but that was not what Kyuzo saw. He saw the prodigious cleavage of Matsumoto Rangiku bent over in front of him. She winked and then slurred; "You're cute. What's your name?"

That was enough for Kyuzo. He stood up, dropped some money on the table, and picked up Edge while spinning on his heel. He muttered "Airhead" under his breath on his way out the bar, thinking about which bottle of whisky he would open when he got back to his quarters. But he wasn't the only one to leave the bar at that time. The inebriated trio had followed him out. Matsumoto was pestering him for a name, Renji wanted to look at his zanpakutou, intrigued by its extremely non standard appearance and Ikkaku just wanted to fight someone. It took a whole three seconds of this annoyance before Kyuzo lost his temper, flaring his reiatsu and flash stepping away at maximum speed. The three drunks looked at each other, all thinking the same thing; that wasn't as strong as it seemed right?

Kyuzo landed on the other side of the Court of Pure Souls. He was mentally cursing himself for being so conspicuous; obviously non standard attire and a very unique zanpakutou. He immediately let Edge dissolve and clamped down his reiatsu, hiding so much as to be virtually invisible. He started walking, grabbing a black kimono and white sash off the first washing line he passed. He wasn't going in any particular direction, but he could feel the reiatsus of the three drunks approaching. He upped his pace some and was well away from where he had landed before the 2 fukutaichous and the 3rd seat arrived. They stumbled around loudly for a while and then got distracted by another bar.

* * *

In the 5th Division headquarters, Aizen Sousuke looked up from the scroll he had been reading. The burst of reiatsu he had just felt was totally unfamiliar to him, yet at the same time so very similar to his own when totally unmasked; purely willpower. He made a mental note to have Gin look into the source tomorrow. He picked up the cup of tea from his desk, and smiled to himself; after the event with the ryoka at the wall that day, everything was going to plan.


	13. Chapter 13

Two days later, it was announced the execution had been brought forward, to two weeks hence. While Kyuzo had nothing against the girl, and had no wish to see her die, he was desperate to get out of Soul Society and back to the real world. Everything about shinigami culture and life grated on his nerves like nails on a chalkboard, and he was more than once tempted to go on a screaming rampage. Many of the conversations he heard in the street were so banal it made him want to scream out "Who cares what the taichou of this division did? Who gives a shit what so-and-so from that division said? Why don't you all talk about something interesting?" But he couldn't just hide away. He had nothing to read, nowhere to train and nobody to spar with. He almost regretted turning down the drunken offer Renji had made him. But that would jeopardise the secrecy of his position. And when it became common knowledge that a fukutaichou had lost to an unknown shinigami more attention would be focussed on him. So he grit his teeth, and spent his time prowling the streets, ignoring all who questioned him and keeping an iron grip on his temper. Not that the quiet lasted long.

The alarm was audible throughout the entire of the Court of Pure Souls, along with the repeated message of "Intruders! Intruders in the Court of Pure Souls!" Kyuzo was hurrying back to the 2nd Division, resisting the urge to use the one flash step and pile of reiatsu it would take to get him there. He had almost gotten there when the shield appeared. A pale blue dome over the whole of the city, and the bright white light shooting towards it. The two collided with an enormous release of reiatsu, the dome visibly pulsing with the energy of the impact. A few seconds later the projectile passed through and exploded, sending out four smaller objects. Kyuzo watched them descend, and headed back to his headquarters without delay.

* * *

Before the emergency meeting that had been called for, three taichous met entirely in secret. "What have you learned of the burst of reiatsu from the other day, Gin?" The speaker was a chestnut haired man, with square glasses and a kindly smile. He had addressed a white haired man with very narrow eyes, which appeared closed to everyone he met. "Abarai Renji, Matsumoto Rangiku and Madarame Ikkaku were drinking and accosted a shinigami that nobody recognised, including the barkeep. He claimed to be from the 2nd division. The barkeep remembers he had an unusual looking zanpakutou and wore a very modified shihakushou. He lost them using shunpo, but they were all drunk. And that's about all there is to know cap'n." The grin he perpetually wore widened some. Aizen was leaning back, eyes closed, thinking deeply. Eventually he spoke; "Thank you, Gin. You should go, so you can appear late at the taichous meeting." Gin nodded and left swiftly. Aizen cast a glance at Tousen, the other one present for the exchange, nodded curtly and left as well, confident he wouldn't need to alter his plans at all.

* * *

Kyuzo was waiting patiently in her office when Sui Fong returned from the meeting. She had expected this, and immediately filled him in on the details of the invasion.

"So there are some ryoka loose in the Court of Pure Souls, and several divisions are out trying to find them. What do you want me to do?"

"Stay out of sight, and watch how the situation develops. Be ready to respond to anything; I will send you a hell butterfly if necessary, but you should stay nearby in case you are needed urgently"

With this Kyuzo stood and swiftly left the room. "Great" he thought to himself. "Now I have to hang around this place all day."

* * *

And so he did, remaining either in his quarters, or sitting on the roof of the building. Some news reached his ears; rumours of 11th division confronting two of the invaders and losing, someone from 7th being totally defeated and there were some potent unidentified reiatsu blasts that he could feel from the other side of the city. And still he waited. Then there was a fight Kyuzo felt from the roof; he later found out that Abarai Renji had been defeated by one of the ryoka. But things took a drastic turn the next morning. The body of the 5th division taichou, Aizen Sousuke was found pinned to a wall with his own zanpakutou. Still uninstructed, Kyuzo stayed in or near the 2nd Division headquarters, bored out of his mind and just wishing to be doing something, preferably fighting some of the ryoka.

Sui Fong started to worry slightly about her killer. She knew he was a weapon, and weapons get rusty when not used, but there was nothing she could do about it. His existence was pretty much secret from everyone in the Court of Pure Souls, and she wanted to keep it that way. She kept him informed of all the developments she heard about; the fighting of two fukutaichous after the death of Aizen, the capture and imprisonment of one of the ryoka, the fight between Zaraki Kenpachi and the strongest of the ryoka, a shinigami by the name of Kurosaki Ichigo.

There were more fights between the ryoka and the Gotei 13 in the days leading up to the execution, including the defeat of the taichou of the 12th Division. Then the infighting started, and carried on until the day itself came. All of the ryoka had vanished, or were caught and imprisoned at the 4th Division, but the intrigues surrounding the murder of Aizen continued to create rifts. Reports of a fight between the 3rd and 10th taichous came in, but were vague at best, with different sources recording different levels of fukutaichou involvement; in this case Kira Izuru and Hinamori Momo. The whole affair was a mess, Kyuzo reflected, wanting it to be over and done with so he could go back to the living world.

* * *

The morning of the execution, Sui Fong told him of a place he could watch from undetected, assuming he could keep his reiatsu under control. She suggested he get there well before the execution was due to start, so he had plenty of time to kill in the forest on Soukyoku Hill. It looked there was still fighting taking place in a couple of places in the Court of Pure souls, though who was fighting whom was unclear. Kyuzo didn't really care, but he did have to resist the temptation to let loose his reiatsu, flash step across the city and find somewhere to watch. But he didn't, instead he sat in a tree, trying to doze without falling off.

He was woken up by the arrival of Kuchiki Rukia with her guard detail. A quick look round told him how few taichous were present; 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 were all missing, in addition to the deceased 5th. Kyuzo had no idea how the Sokyoku worked, and was amazed at its released phoenix form. As it was lining up its strike on the suspended criminal, he was vaguely disappointed that there hadn't been a place for him to fight in the grand scheme of things. That was until Kurosaki Ichigo showed up.

To stop a weapon of such awesome power of the Soukyoku was impressive to say the least, and when the boy smashed the scaffold Kyuzo almost wanted to go and shake him by the hand. The reiatsu he was throwing off was not to be sniffed at, and it was wild, unstable, barely held in check. It reminded Kyuzo vaguely of river on the verge of bursting its banks, like the boy was ready to go nuclear at some point, and he would have no choice in the matter. No surprise then that he floored 3 fukutaichous without so much as breaking a sweat. There seemed to be some history between Ichigo and the famous Kuchiki Byakuya, 6th Division taichou, and the two quickly started a massive battle between themselves after Rukia fled with Renji. An unknown figure seemed to snatch Sui Fong out of existence; he hung around just long enough to see Ukitate and Kyouraku take off, with the soutaichou in close pursuit. The entire structure of the Gotei 13 seemed to unravel around this execution, and not for the first time Kyuzo idly wondered if there was some hidden puppetmaster, pulling strings from afar.

He could quite easily follow the reiatsu of his taichou and the other figure who was dragging her along. There were several operatives from the Secret Mobile corps ahead of him, who he assumed would also be following their leader, and since they were a lot easier to keep tabs on, he simply kept his distance from them as they headed out into one of the great forested areas of Soul Society. He felt them stop, all in the same locality as Sui Fong, so he stopped as well, a little further away, and cast out his reiatsu enhanced senses. Some kind of standoff as far as he could tell. Then he completely lost track of what was happening; it seemed like all the SMC footsoldiers were simultaneously knocked unconscious and fell out of the trees. He had a fleeting impression of a lot of flash steps, but he was too far away to really understand. Little did he know that it was one person who had just taken out all those men.

* * *

Shihouin Yoruichi smirked at her former protégé, "…but I don't remember abandoning my other name."

"God of Flash." Sui Fong fumed to herself. Her resolve formed, she removed her sleeves and white haori, wanting to fight without that encumbrance. Yoruichi watched, the same smirk playing across her lips.

"It seems I missed one of your backup. Though he is a little further away. And seems to be a cut above the rest. You holding something back, Sui Fong?" The Purple haired woman cocked her head slightly. "One more, just in case you lose?" Sui Fong hadn't even noticed the presence of her unique soldier until then. She was annoyed that he was nearby, but could see no way to send him away without it looking like an act of foolish bravado.

"He won't interfere. He's just watching because he's bored."

From his vantage point Kyuzo saw the white haori float away on the wind. He knew that meant his taichou was fighting seriously, and out of curiosity he had to move closer. He could feel the two figures fighting from a distance; the amount of reiatsu being used for flash steps was obvious, but other than that it seemed to be a fight using solely hand-to-hand techniques. He eventually caught up with them, but he'd had to release his zanpakutou and use flash jumps to keep up. When he got within sight range his taichou was facing off against a chocolate skinned woman with purple hair and golden eyes; he had absolutely no idea who she was. Sui Fong seemed to have the upper hand; she was obviously much more composed and the other woman had the bee crests of Suzumebachi in a few places on her body, including one on her face.

"Do you understand yet that I am superior to you?" That was Sui Fong talking. She knew Kyuzo was very close by; she'd felt the reiatsu signatures of his peculiar movement technique while she was chasing Yoruichi. "You can come out." She called out loud enough for him to hear. He appeared a few feet behind her, his zanpakutou released but not drawn. Sui Fong was impressed; his use of the flash jump to get behind her had cemented the facts in her head; not only had she herself surpassed Yoruichi in strength, but her subordinate had as well. The widening of Yoruichi's eyes almost made Sui Fong feel proud. "This is my predecessor and a traitor to Soul Society, Shihouin Yoruichi."

"Sui Fong, who is this? And what was that shunpo just now?" Yoruichi was utterly blown away by what she had just seen. It wasn't a flash step; it couldn't be. She had perfected that technique and could follow any user of it without any problem, yet she hadn't seen or felt this boy move; there was a strange reiatsu disturbance around him where he had appeared, but it had dissipated quickly. Sui Fong was looking at her condescendingly; "This is my subordinate, Kyuzo," she said amusedly, before turning to Kyuzo, "demonstrate your zanpakutous power." Kyuzo nodded. He knew Sui Fong was showing him off, and ordinarily he wouldn't have gotten involved, but it had felt good having Edge release and actually using some of his reiatsu after a week of doing literally nothing. So he stepped forward. And then flash jumped.

He did exactly the same thing to Yoruichi as he had done to Sui Fong when they had last fought. During the flash jump he drew the main sword of his shikai, and as he dropped out of the flash space placed one blade on each side of Youruichis neck, with the two crossed a few inches in front of her. It was an inescapable position. For her part, she never registered that he had moved until it was far too late. He murmured to her; "Checkmate," before vanishing again and hitting the ground in front of Sui Fong with more force than necessary, sending dust and debris flying everywhere. By the time he was visible again he was making a point of slowly sheathing his main hand weapon, before lowering his shikai to his side in his left hand. Yoruichi was stunned for the second time in as many minutes.

"How? How is it possible to move that fast?!" There was a hint of panic in her voice; she knew she could have beaten Sui Fong, since she still had flashcry up her sleeve, but this youth was a different class. Against the taichou she had a small advantage in speed terms, but even though she was out of practice and had some room to improve, she would still be nowhere against the shinigami who had just absolutely and totally demonstrated his superiority. A thought then struck her. She looked at the boy; there was no indication of rank in his clothing. "How is it that you have someone so strong as your subordinate Sui Fong? Why is he not a fukutaichou, or even a taichou?" She was surprised when Kyuzo answered.

"I'm not interested in any of that crap. I stay in the real world and kill all the stronger hollows that show up." He turned to the taichou behind him. "But I'm not settling your personal grudges. Doesn't look like you need me anyway." As he spoke he sealed his zanpakutou, and the outside blade reverted to a sheath. "Finish the fight yourself." With that he walked past Sui Fong and leapt up onto a rock so he could watch the remainder of the fight in relative comfort and safety. He could feel another fight that was causing a massive amount of disturbance; from here all he could feel was a huge amount of fire based reiatsu, and he wanted to see what was happening there. He got so wrapped up in trying to probe deeper into that battle from afar that he didn't notice the two women start fighting again. He was brought back to his local senses by an explosion of dirt and rock.

Yoruichi had unleashed her flashcry, blasting apart the back of her orange jacket in the process and ripping up huge chunks of earth at the same time. He watched as Sui Fong charged, and got stopped dead in midair, only for her to leap back and attack with more vigour. This time she leapt in the air and fired of a blast of kidou in a technique that was similar to the one Yoruichi had just used, but even Kyuzo could tell there was a difference in the skill levels. Then they were both stood on small beds of spirit particles in midair; Sui Fong was shouting something at Yoruichi, he couldn't make out the words but he could feel the anger rising in her reiatsu, and he knew the fight was over. Both times he had fought his taichou she was cold and controlled. If she was getting angry it could only mean she was on the verge of breaking. "These two must have a history" he thought to himself.

Up in the air the leader of the 2nd Division had finished her rant and was preparing another blast of kidou. As Kyuzo watched, it was completely overpowered by a blast from Yoruichi so big it overflowed wildly up into the sky with a blinding flash. When all the smoke cleared the two figures were on the ground again, Yoruichis fist a mere inch from Sui Fongs face. It was obvious that she had pulled the punch, but even from a distance Kyuzo could tell from her body language that all the fight had gone from Sui Fong; she fell to her knees. He sighed to himself, and stood up; such emotional displays were annoying. As he was about to leave, he heard the voice calling up from behind him; "Wait, Kyuzo!"

The two women were walking back towards the rock he was now standing on. Sui Fong looked like she had been crying, and he didn't know anything about Yoruichi so he couldn't read anything into her expression. He jumped back to the ground, landing lightly a few feet in front of them. He waited, not really knowing what to expect. Up close he couldn't really tell what his taichou was thinking either; he'd never seen this expression before. It turned out not to matter as she walked right past him, not so much as glancing his way. He watched her pass, and Yoruichi was looking at him intently when he turned back. "Tell me about that shunpo you used."

"It wasn't shunpo. Flash steps are inefficient and wasteful. They're flash jumps."

"It's faster than shunpo. How? There's no way that's possible."

"I beg to differ," he said this with a shrug and a grin at the same time, "and I can't explain to you how to do them or how they work; you'd need my zanpakutou, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't help you."

Before the conversation could progress further, Sui Fong sat bolt upright and snapped at them to be quiet. Then they both heard it as well. A long distance message coming in through a complicated kidou spell. As the three of them listened, Sui Fong regained her usual stern expression, Yoruichi simply narrowed her eyes and Kyuzo was gripping the sheath of his sword so hard the knuckles went white; this was treachery of the highest calibre, something to be abhorred in his opinion. It was the 4th Division fukutaichou who was filling everyone in about Aizens betrayal; from the massacre of the Central 46, the faking of his own murder and the orchestration of the fights within the Gotei 13 to the killing of his own fukutaichou, Himamori, as well as the 10th Division taichou. When she was finished, Sui Fong looked at Kyuzo and simply said "Go."

Without a moment's hesitation, he lifted his zanpakutou and held it out in front of his chest; "Sever every last bond, Edge!" As soon as the shikai formed he vanished, flash jumping as fast as he could. Yoruichi and Sui Fong followed, but were utterly incapable of keeping up with him. As soon as the betrayal had become clear, Kyuzo had felt the fury run through him like a shiver of icy water; anything that had even the vaguest notion of treachery had been like a shortcut to fury since he'd died; during his calmer moments he reasoned that it was because of the way he had died, but that wasn't his concern at the moment. He could see the hill now, and there was a massive release of an ultra high level kidou spell; he could see the purple black box that was the effect, and instantly recognised the 90th Way of Destruction from the descriptions he had read. Somewhere at the back of his mind the rational part of him was realising just how much his reiatsu was increasing with his anger, but that didn't register either; he was blinded by his fury – intent only on reaching the hill and killing Aizen. His zanpakutou was singing in his hand, the killing intent washing over him and whispering bankai into his mind.


	14. Chapter 14

On the top of the Soukyoku hill, Aizen looked at the small orb in his hand, the purple and black swirling over it. He'd just pulled it directly out of Rukia, and for the first time held the object of his desires, the first step on the road to realising his ambitions. He was speaking more to himself than anyone else; "I'm surprised… It's something this small? … This is the Hougyoku…." His thinking out loud was interrupted by the reiatsu he could feel approaching. It was travelling at an amazing speed, and suddenly there was an unknown shinigami stood on the hill as well, reiatsu crackling around him. Aizen slipped the Hougyoku into his robe and considered the newcomer; he hadn't arrived using flash steps and so necessitated further enquiry, after all, he had some time to kill before the Negacion would remove him from Soul Society.

Kyuzo took in the scene at a glance; the man in glasses was obviously Aizen, and he quickly recognized Tousen and Ichimaru as his accomplices. There was another taichou bleeding heavily on the ground not far away, he also recognized Renji, and he assumed that the orange haired teenager was Kurosaki Ichigo. There were some other kids dressed as shinigami who he guessed were the rest of the ryoka. All this was observed, processed and stored in a millisecond before he turned his focus back to Aizen. He was already annoyed by the grin on the mans face. Without speaking he took a quarter turn to his left, so he was side on to Aizen and brought his shikai to his left hip. Aizen recognized the stance as the prelude to sword drawing attack. He sighed to himself.

"Looks like I have another piece of dust to brush away." He drew his own blade, surreptitiously releasing it at the same time, though nobody present saw through its effect to acknowledge the release. He left an image standing where he had been and advanced slowly on the youth in front of him. This was one of his favourite parts about a fight; just watching his opponent start following an illusion while he got in place and ended everything in one fell swoop. Then the new unnamed shinigami started doing something odd. It seemed to all the observers that he started oscillating, his outline vibrating. Kyuzo was using the projection ability of his zanpakutou. Aizen took a closer look at him, noting some of the details. First the clothing was very different form a normal shinigami; not a usual hakama, but some other form of legwear with a narrow waist but loose enough to hide leg movements and feet position. Tighter clothing on the upper body and right arm completely uncovered. The markings on his arm drew Aizens attention, both due to the shape and also the strange fronds of reiatsu that were coming out of them. Suddenly Kyuzo erupted into his projection, and there was an unbroken circle around the image of Aizen, all rotating round like they were fixed to a disc centred on the false image.

As soon as Kyuzo moved into the flash space, Aizen disappeared from his sight, but then he noticed that the traitor had just moved slightly. Confused, he stopped the projection for a fragment of a second, just enough to see that outside the flash space Aizen was still stood smiling in the middle of his circle, but in the flash space he had moved off towards where Kyuzo had been originally stood and wasn't smiling. "An illusion." It made perfect sense. The thoughts continued; "So his illusions don't work in the flash space. Handy." He adjusted himself so he was circling where Aizen was actually stood and launched his attack; the vicious swipe of his main hand blade as he drew it and the follow through with the bladed scabbard. Aizen had seen the circle realigning itself around where he actually was and knew the attack was coming, to his unguarded left he guessed. The two blades met with a massive release of reiatsu, Kyuzo abandoning the second attack with his left hand so he could put more force into the first swing, and then the deadlock when it was blocked.

"Who are you? And how did you see through my hypnosis?" Aizen asked, as their faces were close. Kyuzo almost roared back he was so furious at the conceit.

"As if I'm going to tell the likes of you anything more than my name," he ground out through clenched teeth, "I am Kyuzo." Aizen simply smiled his infuriating smile. "Well Kyuzo, I think it's time to end this." With that he left another illusion where he had been, which off balanced Kyuzo just long enough for Aizen to get behind him and land a slash along the length of his back. Kyuzo felt the blade passing through his flesh and it only made him angrier. He staggered a few steps and then, blood dripping freely to the floor, turned back to his opponent. As always some part of his mind was working furiously on categorising everything he was seeing and the most striking thing about the 5th Division taichou was the nature of his reiatsu. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt. Tousen and Ichimaru were easy to identify; the white light and the nest of snakes respectively, but Aizen was just a tower of willpower. It was like standing at the bottom of a mile high monolith, with Aizen standing on the top looking down at you. And it was holding everyone else who wasn't one of the three traitors down on the ground. Kyuzo breathed heavily and sheathed his sword again. He turned it round so he was holding his shikai in a standard two handed grip, almost like a practise stance. All rationale was forgotten, the only parameter for decision making in his head was the need to kill Aizen. With a surge of his own reiatsu Kyuzo yelled out; "BANKAI!"

Immediately the resonata surged up his arms and onto his chest and back again, the pain irrelevant to the fight. The reiatsu streamed out of them, shredding his clothes and leaving him dressed only from the waist down. All the tendrils collected behind him, slowly massing together and growing into a cocoon on his back. His sword was growing as well. The blade curled back on itself and the whole thing turned into a rounded cylinder. The curve straightened and extended, before turning completely black, until it looked like he was holding a 6 foot long staff by the bottom six inches. Suddenly blades erupted from both sides, growing further outwards closer to his grip and tapering to a point at the end. It was like a huge swept back arrow, with very irregular supports attaching the blade to the central column. At the same time as the blades grew, the cocoon of reiatsu exploded behind him into a pair of ethereal wings; there was no structure too them, just a skeleton of black reiatsu that swirled out of the resonata on his back and chest, like smoke flowing over an obstruction. The same black aura surrounded his sword, and dripped off from the lowest part of the blade.

"The Bleeding Edge," Kyuzo said without looking at Aizen, "You die now."

"Very impressive, Kyuzo-kun," Aizen uttered the honorific with a sneer. "Since you have bankai perhaps you would like to be a taichou?" With this he whipped off his haori and held it out to his side, before dropping it contemptuously on the floor. "I don't have time to play with you now." He turned his back, but before he'd even taken three steps Kyuzo was charging, every joint in his body in harmony, every muscle working together, every nerve screaming and every tendon straining under the desire to kill the man in front of him. So much reiatsu was streaming off him he left a massive gash in the ground as he flew at Aizen, his black wings unmoving. Just before his sword connected with the back of Aizens neck a ray of yellow light shot down from the sky and surrounded him in a square. The yellow wall buckled under the strike, and then yielded, but stopped the blade just short of the man inside. Aizen simply reached up and pushed the blade away, the walls of energy springing back into place.

Kyuzo staggered backwards. He'd put a huge amount of energy into that strike, only for it to be brushed aside as if it was nothing. His attention finally left Aizen as two more columns of yellow light burst out of the sky and surrounded Tousen and Ichimaru. It was then he noticed both the gaping hole in the sky and the presence of several more shinigami. Above him hollows writhed about in the hole, trying to break into Soul Society and the feast for them that waited there, only held back by another even more ominous presence behind them. On the ground Kyuzo saw 4 taichous and a number of fukutaichous had arrived during his fight with Aizen. The three traitors were now being slowly lifted, the ground they had been standing on was floating serenely up into the sky and all the chaos beyond. He hefted his newly enhanced sword and prepared to attack again, grimacing slightly at the wound on his back.

"STOP!" It was the soutaichou that had shouted. "That light, it is called Negacion. A hollow technique used to defend their own." The old man looked up at Aizen, whom he had considered the most promising taichous in the Gotei 13, and continued. "Once they were encased in that light, there was nothing we could do to touch them." Kyuzo looked from the speaker back to the object of his hatred. Without taking his eyes off Aizen he stabbed his sword into the ground, straight through the taichous haori that Aizen had discarded while taunting him.

"Aizen Sousuke! I mark you for death!" He had shouted but there was no doubt in his voice, no wavering; just pure hatred. He ran his right hand along his blade, slicing the palm open in the process, and the squeezed his hand into a fist so the blood dripped out onto the white garment on the ground. He raised his voice further; "By my own blood, I will cast you down!" At this utterance he gripped the hilt of his sword again, and the reiatsu suddenly flowing through it obliterated the haori it had pinned down, leaving not even a visible shred. "You will be slain by my hand, never forget that!" Aizen simply smiled down on him.

"You should be careful that you can follow through when you make threats like that. Otherwise you will end up looking weak."

"Aizen!" It was Ukitake shouting now. "Why have you done this?"

"I will ascend to new heights" was the condescending response. "I will stand in heaven, and take the throne that has been so long unoccupied." As he spoke he removed his glasses, before shattering them in his fist, and sweeping his hair back over his head. He looked back down on them, a malevolent presence to the kindly face he had always worn before. "Goodbye, shinigami." And with that the rift in the sky closed around him, along with his two accomplices.


End file.
